Islamic Monarchy
Modern Monarchies
In the nineteenth century the Ottoman sultans began to investigate European-style parliamentary monarchies, but this model was not fully established until the abolishment of the Ottoman Empire in 1923 and the creation of the modern republic of Turkey, which replaced the monarch with an elected president and a parliament. Similar in focus were the khedival dynasty of Egypt (1805–1952) and the Hashimite dynasty of Iraq (1921–1958), which also developed into parliamentary monarchies and which were likewise replaced by republican governments.
One particular challenge for twentieth-century monarchies was the concept of secularism, which in some cases removed the religious ideology used by earlier kings to legitimate their rule but left nothing in its place. A noted secular monarchy was the Pahlavi dynasty in Iran (1925–1979), which succeeded the Qajars. The Pahlavis downplayed Islamic ideas in favor of their own pre-Islamic Persian heritage, which combined with their oppressive rule to provoke their overthrow in favor of an Islamic Republic in 1978–1979.
In the early twenty-first century, monarchies in majority countries with an Islamic majority tend to rely on some evocation of religious legitimacy. The al-Saud family of Saudi Arabia and the Hashimite monarchy of Jordan, for example, practice official state versions of Islam and rule with either secular or Islamic law. However, some modern monarchies have been challenged by Islamist resistance groups, which have proposed alternate visions of society in which sovereignty belongs to God alone.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PRIMARY SOURCES
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Anne F. Broadbridge
Additional topics
Science EncyclopediaScience & Philosophy: Intuitionist logic to KabbalahIslamic Monarchy - Abbasids, Military Rulers, Turko-mongol Ideals, Genghis (chinggis) Khan, Post-mongol Period