A study of the religious policies of the early Abbasid caliphs, focusing on the religious trends which went into the making of Sunni Islam, and tracing the emergence of the nascent Sunni elite in relation to the Abbasids. The picture that emerges is of a close collaboration between the caliphs and the "ulama", with the caliphs playing an active role in religious life. The author challenges the prevailing interpretations of the separation of religion and politics in early Islam, offering insights into the social and religious history of Islam's formative centuries.