In this chapter I am turning to politics of a different type from the dynamics I have been discussing. Politics in the religious sphere involved many of the same people; just as ulama and Sufi shaykhs were part of city and court politics, the ruler and his followers were active in matters of religion. In dealing with the politics of religion, I will go beyond the consideration of religious figures – Sufis and ulama – to examine the wider realm of supernatural power and its manipulation. It seems natural for men to try to experience something beyond the everyday world and to make contact with powers outside their vision. There is also a need to find intermediaries for forces which the individual cannot fully understand or control. Where in the twentieth century most people seek the help of experts, skilled in sciences beyond the understanding of most of us, earlier people sought other avenues to help and understanding. These paths were many and varied, including dreams and their interpretation, natural springs and other places considered efficacious for a variety of reasons, and men whose connection to God or to spirits gave them miraculous powers. What we now call the supernatural was at that time not a realm alien to the natural world, but an additional space from which to manipulate earthly affairs, and it was a field of action potentially open to all.