Mr Mohammed Hanif Khan

I am an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded third year PhD student at Keele University. I am studying the Naṣīḥat al-Mulūk literature of Khawājah Aṭ-Ṭūsī, Imām Al-Ghazālī, and Imām Aṭ-Ṭurṭūshī. I am jointly supervised by Dr Jonathan Head and Dr. Naveed Sheikh.

Danger Perception in the Political Theology of Imām Aṭ-Ṭurṭūshī

I will elucidate the political theology of the Mālikī scholar, Imām Aṭ-Ṭurṭūshī (d. 520 AH/1126). In particular, I will focus on his Arabic treatise Kitāb Sirāj al-Mulūk (Book on the Lamp of Kings). I will explain how Aṭ-Ṭurṭūshī demonstrates the contrast between the ideal ruler and the tyrant, and how he reconciles righteous governance, political authority, and stability. More specifically, I will study the relationship between Sunnī scholars, the rulers of the Bāṭinī Shī‘ah dynasty, and the Sunnī inhabitants of usurped territory in order to understand the discourse of Aṭ-Ṭurṭūshī regarding danger perception.