The genesis of the Shiite Political Jurisprudence Based on Sociology of Knowledge Theory
Dr. Reza Nasiri Hamed
The jurisprudence was formed as a unique and special knowledge in historical heritage and intellectual tradition of Muslims. The aspects of this discipline have shared with some other fields, especially law. Political jurisprudence surveys the regulations and rules of political life. So, political jurisprudence has mutual interactions with real situations and their influences that have made this field of religious knowledge in two major categories; on the one hand, it is originated from the fixed Revelation foundations and on the other hand, it must consider the changeable domains of political and social conditions in order to present the appropriate orders and regulations. Perhaps the most essential and fundamental part of Shiite political jurisprudence is related to the Major Occultation (Al-Ghaybah al-Kubra), which expanded and developed by the influence of cultural and socio-political conditions. In the current research, I study the genesis and evolution of the Shiite political jurisprudence based on the sociology of knowledge theory, specially Max Scheler’s theory, which considers the relations of this field with the interactions of external factors. Most Shiite scholars like Ibn Babawayh, Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid, Shaykh Tusi, Sharif al-Murtaza, Al-Sharif al-Radi have been studied in this research as the founders and key scholars of this field in the early centuries of Islamic civilization.
Keywords: Political Jurisprudence, Sociology of Knowledge Thepry, Max Scheler, Buyid Dynasty, Shiite.