The Inverse Relationship Between Authoritarian Government and Religious Pluralism

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Akbar encouraged debate among scholars of different faiths. He put at least two moslem jurists to death, clearly asserting his authority over them. We tend to think of a sort of authoritarian government as one that would repress religious difference. But in these cases, the more authoritarian the government, the more tolerance and even encouragement of religious pluralism.

Ayşe Zarakol on her book Before the West: The Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders. How centuries of Asian empires from Genghis Khan to Timur and the early Ming Dynasty through the Ottomans and Mughals built dominant world orders and, ultimately, shaped the rise of Europe—and how that all might shape how we think about the crisis in the world order today. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out phenomenalworld.org