Abstract:

The state was an indispensable part of the communities’ life since the first periods of history and till now. Though, some dealt with the state fact, through historical process, from sociologic perspective, others qualified it as an administrative organization due to the difference between the governing and the governed. Also some scholars specified the state, from a legal point of view, as an abstract entity due to its sovereign and private affair qualifications. Thus, different approaches came into being according to the underlined qualification of the state. In this study, we tried to deal with the views of Maverdi and Nizamülmülk, the two important personalities in the Seljuk period, who represent different approaches in the history of Islamic political thinking, in a comparative way, since they symbolize the Seljuk’s governing thinking and demonstrate the social, cultural and political accumulation of the mentioned period. For this reason, we investigated thoroughly the work called “Ahkamü’s-Sultaniyye “ which reflects, to a great deal, the state understanding of Maverdi and the work called “ Siyasetname “ which reveals the same understanding of Nizamülmülk comparatively. While performing this research, we tried to evaluate the mentioned authors’ views with regard to the objective of the state’s actuality, the method of effective administration, the basic characteristics which had to be found in the head of state and the relation between state and community.

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