ABSTRACT
Nowhere is Sha˚ra\nê as inconsistent as in his ideas about the desired relationship between men of religion and members of the ruling class. We find side by side idealism and pragmatism, religious scrupulousness and the desire for personal honor, naïveté and shrewdness, submissiveness and resignation; yet there is also bitterness verging on hatred. Such apparent contradictions cannot be explained away by pointing to Sha˚ra\nê’s well-known inconsistencies, but must be understood as reflecting a complicated and painful situation, especially from the point of view of the religious class.
