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VIReligiopolitical Activism and the ‘Ulama:Comparative PerspectivesTHERE IS NO parallel in the Sunni Muslim world to the authoritythe highest-ranking Shi‘i religious scholars have wielded since theemergence ofthe position ofthe marja‘ al-taqlid in the secondhalfofthe nineteenth century, a position which, in turn, became the basisfor Khumayni’s reformulation of the doctrine of wilayat al-faqih in 1970and for the rise to power of the Shi‘i religious establishment with the Iranianrevolution of1979. Insofar as the actual assumption ofpoliticalpower by the ‘ulama is concerned, perhaps the closest contemporary parallelto the Shi‘i ‘ulama ofIran was represented by the strongly anti-Shi‘aSunni Taliban ofAfghanistan. But in several other Muslim societies, too,the ‘ulama have come to play new and highly significant religiopoliticalroles. This chapter examines the context in which these roles have emergedin a number ofcontemporary societies, both where Muslims comprise anumerical majority and where they are a minority. While comparative perspectiveshave frequently informed our discussion of the Pakistani ‘ulamain the previous chapters, the discussion here foregrounds the comparativedimension in order to understand what underlies the ‘ulama’s contemporaryactivism. Why have the ‘ulama’s activist roles emerged when theyhave, in particular since the last quarter ofthe twentieth century? How dothe ‘ulama relate to the Islamists in their societies? And what do facets ofthis religiopolitical activism have in common across Muslim societies?These are among the questions I focus on in the following.The ‘Ulama and the State in EgyptThe Egyptian ruling elite, like those in other Muslim societies, have longdepended on the ‘ulama for religious legitimacy. But, as elsewhere, theyhave often also made efforts to restrict the power of the ‘ulama—an effortthat, in modern times, has typically taken the form of “reforming” andregulating the ‘ulama’s educational institutions. In examining the debateon madrasa reform in British India and Pakistan, we have seen how itprovided the context in which new conceptions ofreligion began toemerge; these conceptions are, in turn, closely related to the ‘ulama’s view