Islamic high religion structurally separated legislation from executive power.

Evidence

It provided a revered and permanent political constitution, and it limited political prerogatives. It supplied the law for all Muslim states. It imposed a fascinating example of the separation of powers: legislation was separated from the executive, being pre-empted by the deity. The content of divine legislation was in the keeping of the scholars. No overt legislative innovation was possible, except by analogy and interpretation of the existing legal corpus. If the deity pre-empts legislation, the executive cannot usurp it. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2052

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains how divine pre-emption of legislation created the separation of powers in Islamic polities.
• XREF: connects to: Early Islamic empire required separating clerical from political authority — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 322; Muslim empires separated religious from political authority from their start.; Empire-building forced a de facto separation of religious and political power in Islam.