A Study of the Relation between the Aspects of Religion and National Identity in the Political Philosophy of Sheikh Esma`il Mahallati

One of the most notable theorists and supporters of the constitutionalist political system in the constitutional era is Sheikh Isma'il Mahallati. The political philosophy of the late Mahallati may be taken as that defending a theoretical interaction between such new concept as national identity and religion. In the present paper, after a conceptual and theoretical analysis of the two concepts of religion and national identity with an analytico-descriptive method based on documentary and library data, the characteristics of religion and national identity and the ratios these two concepts in the views of Sheikh Isma'il Mahllati have been described. These ratios are observed in such areas as religious rituals with the political dimension of national identity, the aspect of religious rituals with the social dimension of national identity, the organizational dimension of religion with the political dimension of national identity.