Origins of Religious Rebellions: Fiscal Capacity, Dissent, and State Building

• In Event: Down with the Crown

Abstract

Does the interaction of religious authority and political power play a role in state-building? The literature on state-building has focused on coercion and capital (Tilly 1990) as the primary factors shaping the modern state in Europe while largely ignoring the role of cultural factors in historical political development such as religion (see Chaney 2013 for an exception). In this paper, I argue that religion may play an important role in state-building in two ways. First, religious rebellions may trigger violent campaigns by the central authority and increase fiscal capacity. Second, central administration may use cooptation strategies against religious mobilization and consolidate official religious narrative. This second strategy relies on spiritual capital to establish hegemony and political legitimacy through regulation of religious markets and supply of religion. I deploy evidence from early and classical Ottoman period characterized by a constellation of three factors including a pluralistic religious market, centrifugal frontier powers, and a nascent central administration (Inalcik, 1973). I provide an in-depth study of two prominent religious revolts, Sheikh Bedreddin Uprising (1416) and Shahkulu rebellion (1511), and state’s fiscal and ideological responses to these rebellions to depict the mechanisms linking religion to state-building. Utilizing state-building and economics of religion literatures, the analysis provides new insights about state-building, the origins of state-religion relations, and the relationship of political power and religious authority in the Muslim world.

References

Chaney, E., 2013. Revolt on the Nile: Economic shocks, religion, and political power. Econometrica, 81(5), pp.2033-2053.
Inalcik, H., 1973. The Ottoman Empire. The classical age, 1300, p.1600.
Tilly, C., 2012. Coercion, capital, and european states [1990]. Contemporary Sociological Theory

Author

• Sabri Ciftci, Kansas State University