Heresy (Ilhad) Accusation and Its Instances during Seljuk Era RoghayehVahedDorabadi

Heresy (Ilhad) in Islamic jurisprudence and theology science refers to denial of existence of the sole God, rejection of God, denying Islam religion, converting to another religion as well as committing sin at Masjid Al-Haram. Nevertheless, during history, the ruling class of the society and leaders of religious sects have repeatedly resorted to heresy (Ilhad) accusation for the sake of eliminating their opponents and seizing their properties. During Seljuk dynasty, the relationship of the government with Abbasid dynasty, which was based on custodianship of political and religious tribes overIslamiclands,came to a new stage andconsequently influenced the attitudes and instances of heresy. This research, besides examining the instances of heresy during Seljuk dynasty and characteristics and ideologies of those individuals accused of heresy, intends to investigate whether heresy accusation during Seljuk dynasty wasmore influenced by political and social conditions or originated from religious attitudes and prejudices. The required data for this study was collected by library research method and was analyzed by using a descriptive-analytic approach. This research reveals that the political inclination of the government played a key role in the dependency of the Seljuk to the government, the religious prejudice of the ruling government and intellectuals,andthe social and religious atmospheres. In other words,political and religious factors were jointlyat work in accusing different groups and thinking schools to heresy.