ABSTRACT
Traditional domination holds that tradition is sacred. The sheikh represents traditional authority that has had faces in Islam, namely patrimonial and sultanic power. Patriarchal authority before Islam is a form of the universal traditional authority. The solution in Islam of the succession problem concerning the passage from charismatic rule to the day-to-day administration of the group or religion was decisive for the future developments of the religion. In Islamic patrimonialism observes the competition between the prince and the religious order as well as between the prince and the professionals of law. In Islam, collegiality played a role similar to that in the Occident, as the idea of representation is missing. Islam developed a type of authority that is typically described as patrimonial or sultanic, but this absolute power was to varying degrees actually shared with the rights of corporations – economic, administrative, religious, secular and juridical.
