Thus the myth, or perhaps better, invention of the tradition of Akhbarism is a major factor in trying to understand the problem introduced in chapter one.
It raises the question, however, of how Akhbarism, now active in the Gulf and in India (e.g., the group behind the webpage www.akhbari.org), may react in a culture more exposed to post-global democratism and thus, in some sense, inoculated against the authoritarianism of a premodern, pre-industrial Weltgefuhl.
The final chapter, "Conclusions," proffers above all a very interesting theory regarding the question of Akhbarism's decline in the Qajar period.
Gleave examines the network of Astarabadi's teaching circles and their role in the spread of
Akhbarism in the 200 years following his death, and looks at major themes within Akhbari works of jurisprudence between the death of Astarabadi and the work of Mirza Muhammad al-Akhbari, the last significant Akhbari scholar in Iraq and Iran.