The proportion of knowledge and power in the Umayyad period: Umayyad cultural policies against Shiites

Knowledge production at any moment in history is the result of the powerful historical agent’s role. Therefore, considering the proportion of knowledge and power would have a fundamental significance in the historical period’s discourse atmosphere recognition. According to the assumption that knowledge implies everything that users of a community deem as knowledge, this article considers the proportion of knowledge and power in the Umayyad period. The theoretical framework of the article is Michel Foucault’s model in analyzing the proportion of power and knowledge. Using this model indicates that the Umayyad lacked the necessary religious legitimation to rule the Islamic society. Therefore, they needed a new form of knowledge to regulate the social behavior of Muslims in new power by filling the religious legitimation vacancy. For this reason, they tried to take advantage of knowledge most significant sources in the early Islamic Society that is Hadith, poetry, and storytelling to recover their religious legitimation crisis. Hence, by forging the hadiths, prohibiting the narration of hadiths on the virtues of Ahl al-Bayt, and composing poetry and storytelling to their honor, they produced a knowledge that while showing Ahl al-Bayt to became deviated from Islamic beliefs principles, provides a background to marginalize the Shiites from power to achieve the necessary authority to sustain the government.