The Role of Reference Groups in Strengthening Umayyad Rule (Case Study: Cultural Elements)

Reference groups as the social capital of a society have a great role in the decline and growth of societies and the fall and strengthening of governments. On the other hand, it should be noted that governments typically seek to gain legitimacy and strengthen themselves by employing reference groups as their social capital, and this study seeks to explain the role of these groups and specifically the role of cultural elements in strengthening Umayyad rule. The result of this research is that the cultural elements of reference groups such as jurists, narrators and poets played a great role in strengthening the Umayyad rule, both in terms of legitimacy and political, spiritual and psychological strengthening. In terms of method, the data processing method in this research is descriptive-analytical and content analysis..