Investigating the Nature of Authoritarianism in Islamic Political Philosophy

Seyed Mohammad Hadi Moghaddasi / Master’s Degree in Political Sciences, the IKI    smohamadhm11@gmail.com
HamzehAli Vahidi-Manesh / Assistant Professor of the Department of Political Sciences, the IKI    vahidimanesh@gmail.com
Received: 2019/01/05 - Accepted: 2019/05/01
Abstract
Authoritarianism is one of the new methods of governing that differs from classical dictatorial regimes. Using a descriptive and analytical approach, this paper seeks to show the universality of classical Muslim philosophers' view about the way of classifying governments to examine the nature of authoritarianism in Islamic political philosophy. The grounds for the beginning of authoritarianism and the method and purpose of authoritarianism are the issues which this paper has studied by relying on classical sources of Islamic political philosophy. The hypothesis of this paper is that overpowering city, which is a type of ignorant city, applies to authoritarianism. Therefore, if one wants to expound the nature of authoritarianism in Islamic political philosophy, one has to read about “the overpowering city”. 
Key words: authoritarianism, overpowering city, Islamic political philosophy.