After the preceding discussion of Pseudo-Māwardī's religious–cultural context and his treatment of the religious–political problems that beset kingdoms, the present chapter seeks to locate him in the vibrant and varied religious life of the tenth-century Samanid domains. As the previous pages have demonstrated, Naṣīḥat al-mulūk displays a religious sensibility dominated by certain characteristics: a strong sense of ethical responsibility, expressed in part in observance of the divine law; conviction of the indispensable nature of rational speculation in the pursuit of religious understanding; and an austere way of living in the world, informed by an abiding consciousness of its transience and relativity. This chapter addresses these characteristics with reference to the predominant intellectual and religious configurations in early tenth-century eastern Iran and Transoxiana, namely, the Oanafiyya, the Muʿtazila (and the forming theological school of the ‘scholars of Samarqand’) and the movement of renunciation that would eventually contribute to the formation of ta‚awwuf or Sufism.

Pseudo-Māwardī's upholding of the Rāshidūn as exemplars of moral leadership and his subscription to the principle of ijmāʿ, consensus, indicate his position among the ahl al-sunna wa-l- jamā ʿa. As his reference to the Imamiyya demonstrates, he was familiar with Shiʿite doctrine and he also adduces several examples of ʿAlī's conduct, especially in his discussion of military matters. Pseudo-Māwardī's awareness of Imami doctrine is consistent with the widespread attachment to ʿAlī in the eastern regions in this period. As young men, the Amir Ismāʿīl b. Aamad and the philosopher Abū Zayd al-Balkhī had both reportedly held Shiʿite beliefs, which they later relinquished. Al-Ka ʿbī, moreover, reported that almost all the Muʿtazila regarded ʿAlī as the most worthy of all persons (kāna af∂ala jamīʿ al-khalq) after the Messenger of God, but also held that at the time of their caliphates, Abū Bakr, ʿUmar and ʿUthmān were more suitable candidates for the office than ʿAlī. It is consistent with this outlook that Pseudo-Māwardī cites a aadīth that recognises the status of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, but presents ʿAlī as superior to both of them.