The eleventh and twelfth centuries comprised a period of great
significance in Islamic history. The Great Saljuqs, a
Turkish-speaking tribe hailing from central Asia, ruled the eastern
half of the Islamic world for a great portion of that time. In a
far-reaching analysis that combines social, cultural, and political
history, Omid Safi demonstrates how the Saljuqs tried to create a
lasting political presence by joining forces with scholars and
saints, among them a number of well-known Sufi Muslims, who
functioned under state patronage.
In order to legitimize their political power, Saljuq rulers
presented themselves as champions of what they alleged was an
orthodox and normative view of Islam. Their notion of religious
orthodoxy was constructed by administrators in state-sponsored
arenas such as madrasas and khanaqahs. Thus orthodoxy was linked to
political loyalty, and disloyalty to the state was articulated in
terms of religious heresy.
Drawing on a vast reservoir of primary sources and eschewing
anachronistic terms of analysis such as nationalism, Safi revises
conventional views both of the Saljuqs as benevolent Muslim rulers
and of the Sufis as timeless, ethereal mystics. He makes a
significant contribution to understanding premodern Islam as well
as illuminating the complex relationship between power and
religious knowledge.