The approarches of the Christian and Muslim scholars on the subject of political power (Between 9.- 16.)

The political power, which is one of the most important elements of a state, ensures a superior status to the state in the hierarchy of social structures and becomes very influential in the politicisation of other social structures in the society. One of the most important legitimacy sources of the political power that requires having acceptable legitimacy is the religion. At the same time, religions also use political authorities in order to reach people. In this regard, Christianity and Islam have benefitted from the authority of the political power and affected it. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to analyse the attitudes of the philosophers who are the followers of the religions of Christianity and Islam towards the issue of political power and to detect the similarities and differences between these attitudes. In the thesis, a descriptive qualitative method is used based on an extensive literature review. In the scope of the study, the period between 9th and 16th centuries is investigated when both religions had the highest interaction with the political power. Although it seems that the main factor in differing attitudes of the Christian and Muslim philosophers to the issue of political power is their religions as the result of the study, there are some other factors connected to religion. These factors playing crucial roles in the determined differentiations are the geography where they lived, political constructions in which they were trained, interactions of the political power with the religious institutions in the period they lived in, accumulation of knowledge and economic status in their regions, and the interactions between Christianity and Islam. Consequently, attitudes of the Christian philosophers towards the issue of political power are defending the political power or religious power, while the Muslim philosophers are interested in the political power itself. Keywords: Chiristianity, Islam, political power, Church, caliphate.