Are Muslim caliphates the only examples of successful theocracies in history?
is this a joke thread?
>>305749
Technically, China and Japan were founded as theocracies, but their respective tribal shamans grew to something else (i.e. largely secular rulers such as the Chinese Huangdi and the Japanese Tenno.)
Egypt was pretty damn successful, as theocracies go.
>>306458
I feel like theocracies were all fine and dandy until monotheism came about.
>muh one tru god
>ur god is wrong
>my dad can beat up your dad
>>305749
That would be Papal State
>>306500
"My dad can beat up your dad" was how a lot of that worked in "polytheist times"
>>305749
Pretty sure it's the UK
>>305749
Yes, because Islam is a political religion.
>UK
>Caliphate
>China
>Egypt
why are theocracies so master race?
>>306556
don't forget the vatican m8
>>305749
Don't forget the most based Italian state, after the year 500
>>306562
like I said no political structure is perfect
>>305749
Teutonic Order did very well for a long time
>>306521
maybe, but on most accounts polytheism was less troublesome since many societies adopted foreign gods (for example, romans adopted epona from the gauls among others) or assumed other people's gods were just different versions of their gods (like it happened in baktria with regional gods and greek gods)
>>306500
The Jews
The Papal states
>>306556
If we're going to count the UK, we should definitely count the Roman Empire, since their Emperor was the high priest on top of being a god.
>>305749
Wasn't Tibet one before China absorbed it?
>>305749
I don't think the (historical) Caliphates were any more theocratic than the Byzantines or Sassanids. The Caliph was basically a fusion between Emperor and Shahanshah.
>>306556
>>UK
>theocracy
u avin a giggle m8?
>>306904
I'm speaking about more mid eastern people, different pagans took this shit more seriously than others
>>306500
>my dad can beat up your dad
that was there even before monotheism
I mean the gods do participate in their wars
Modern Iran.
In theory it is a theocracy. In practice it is a secular republic with elections.
>>305749
The Caliphate is a democratic semi-theocracy really. A Khalifa is a secular ruler*. The Ulama is responsible for learning, maintaining, and upholding the religious law, not the state's law. Although the state's law, is of course, informed by the religious law (this is where the semi-theocracy comes into play) in theory and practice the Khalifa can lead the Muslims as he sees fit (but can recall him and establish a new Khalifa if they feel he's strayed too far from the law himself or is ineffective, which is where the democratic ).
*Shi`i tend to believe the Khalifa should be both a secular ruler and an imam of all the faithful, but one /can/ distinguish between the Imamate, the spiritual ruler of the Muslims descended from the Ahl al-Bayt, and a Khalifa elected by the faithful as a governor of the state.
>>305749
Define successful. If you just mean long lasting/powerful, then the Papal States would certainly qualify. Quite a few HRE nations were theocracies as well, and they were fairly successful.
What is ancient Egypt ?
What is roman Empire ?
What is middle age Europe ?
What is absolutist monarchy ?
>>306904
>or assumed other people's gods were just different versions of their gods
Which in hindsight is not completely crazy as many of them most likely developed from the same proto-religion. However, in many cases the connections are still kinda wonky because of the different directions the legends went off in. You might, for example, say that Thor, Perun, and Zeus are connected to each other but they still fulfill very different roles in their respective mythology, the same as with Baldr and Apollo, or Týr and Ares.
>>308111
Not him but isn't the Queen the authority and head of the Anglican church or whatever the Brit protestant version is called?
>>308190
Didn't Snorri Sturluson theorize that many gods, or at least their characters and the legends surrounding them, were derived from the folk memory of militarily successful kings and generals long dead. In that case the gods quite literally did participate in the wars, in a way.
>>311262
Snorri dediacates the entire first chapter of his Edda to explaining that the Aesir were in reality Trojans who after losing the war against the other Greek city states travelled northwards and made themselves kings in Scandinavia. It's unlikely that he believed it himself and instead probably only wrote it to explain that he wasn't a hereti or pagan.
>>306521
Not really. Incorporating local gods from newly conquered lands was incredibly common.
>>311193
Yes but the UK isn't ruled by religious law, is it?
