How did Shi’ism, which was traditionally a mystical form of quietism and initiation, culminate in the Iranian revolution that brought Khomeini to power? After investigating the Shi’ite origins of Khomeinism, we look at the place and the function of the “jurist theologian” using the Lacanian theory of the social bond. We discover that where there is a general tendency to see the dominance of an authoritarian master, there actually reigns a “rational” brand of theological and juridicial knowledge: a knowledge without a master, and which claims to rule over all.