Safavid Government and Holding Friday Prayer from the Perspective of Mullah Khalil Qazvini

The rule of the Safavids in Iran provided the perfect basis for the widespread political and social activities of the Shiite scholars, and they not only maintained good relations with the Safavids but also assumed the highest religious positions in the government. This collaboration was the result of a shift in the jurisprudential political views of the scholars that had previously been unprecedented in the history of the Shiite jurisprudence. Mullah Khalil Qazvini is one of the prominent scholars of the time of the second Safavid Shah Abbas, who is in the spectrum of Akhbari scholars. His political jurisprudential attitude is somewhat different from that of his contemporary scholars because he praised Shah Abbas II as the Shiite king, while he disagreed with one of the religious ceremonies signifying the legitimacy of the government, namely, Friday prayer. He explains the legal and rational reasons for this opposition in his Friday prayer treatise. This article is a descriptive-analytic one. Based on the historical sources and his written works, his views on the Safavid government, Shah Abbas II and Friday prayer are examined.