The holy wars engaged by Mohammed sought to expand territory, whilst not subsuming existing tribal religions under monotheism, rather capitalising on them with tax. Those thus considered heretics by others were obliged to peaceful surrender to Jihad, for concessions of liberty & security (historically Christians of Syria and Egypt, reaching from Spain to Pakistan were hence attracted to Islam). Slowly the degenerates would convert from these existing societies too, enriching Islamic credence with worker rights. Islam wasn't immune to foreign influence however, and the Shi'is gained more influence than Sunni's; from Iranians, Christians, Jewish, and Manichaean providences.
The third generation after Mohammed saw massive conflict between Hossain and Hasan, who slaughtered his (martyred) brother and followers under orders of Umayyad caliph Yazid in 680. One of Hossain's son's survived however maintaining the Shi'i leadership (hence regarded infallible). Extremist policy then thus attributed to Sh'ites were incarnation, transmigration, and messianism, including the prophecy of the Mahdi "rightly guided one". By rule of the Abbasids 749-1256, three divisions of Shi'ism became the Zaaidis or 'fivers', more similar to Sunni's who don't maintain infallibility of Imams. The seveners and twelvers are split on succession of the sixth Imam. Key to the rise of certain groups of the Seveners 'Isma'ilis' was assassination, and maintaining relative state communism; they, founding the Fatimid caliphate, which conquered Eqypt in 969, and took opposition in might to the Abbasids. The twelvers 'Imamis', alternatively conspired upon the Madhi's prophecy to gain power (occultation). As combined force with the Abbasids, the Buyid dynasty 945-1055 maintained a capital at Baghdad. The Twelvers doctrine of Occultation was proposed by a wealthy Shi'is leader in the court of Baghdad. Sorting a way apparently to "avoid the consequences of the idea that the imam was both visible and infallible" (Pg 8.), which implied his orders superseded the Caliph. Effectually a compromise for the realities of Sunni power, at the time the Shi'is were relatively complacent, seeking compromise. (see Gibb's). The divide in power evident to the Abbasids accorded by the doctrine of Occultation was determined between the Isma'ilis and attempts to undermine or overthrow the Abbasids, opposing the Sunni Abbasids and allies of the Twelvers. On the qualifications of power in interpreting the will of the twelfth Imam the Buyid's never attempted to abolish the Caliphate or establish Twelver Shi'ism. The Greater Occultation would of course see to the establishment of Twelver Shi'ism as the state religion of Iran by 1501.
The Safavid Dynasty & the Battle of ChaldiranUntil 1501 and the Safavid dynasty, as said and according Western Orientalist accounts of control, Shi'ism as local to Iran, was established where originally the majority of Iranians were Sunni (Pg 8). The national religious identity however, a following cause for conflict, is reduced in peaceful concession to the marriage of Imam Hosain with the Sasanian princess. Following the greater occultation, the Mujtahid as a relative academic source of authority came to control the distinctions between concessions evident in absence of the Imam, that of infallibility, asserted through legal qualification and 'conservative control' of the power of the Koran; they commanded a certain respect needed in the loss of divine instillment.
The mystical bend of Twelver Shi'ism was rapidly transforming into extremism. Particularly and exclusive to the western states of Turkey and Syria; the Hufuri's who originated in Iran, posited letter-number symbolism called the Bektashi order, central to the later Ottoman Jannisaries. Along with the Safavids a united Sunni/Shi'ite appreciation had followed, by which militant occupation was compatible; and so gaining power over Tabriz in 1501. A renaissance in kind, of earliest Shi'is, following beliefs in reincarnation (with strong ties to the Mongols), they gained power through peasant revolts and nomadic ideology. Moderated later as a middle power, the Safavids developed a conservative doctrine despising their foundations with 'anarchic' tribal followers, and the 'sufi' ideal once synonomus with Safavids. Invoking subsequently a split between Ottoman Sunni and Anatolian tribes, with support from Ismael I; the split forced violent conflict with Sultan Selim impacting thousands of the Shi'i 'fifth column' at Anatolia, who attacked Ismael I the Shah of Iran and Safavid founder and leader, at Chaldiran 1514 furthermore, temporarily invading Tabriz and 'liberating' parts of Mesopotamia in the process.
The Shi'a world view, then, is profoundly tragic and nostalgic. The Shi'ite longs for a return to a time when spiritual truth walked among us, a time when human perfection stood as an icon for all humans to emulate.
The Occultation has two distinct stages, the Lesser Occultation and the Greater Occultation. In the Lesser Occultation, the Hidden Imam continued to communicate with humanity through representatives. Since the Imam was the spiritual guide or light to the rest of humanity, the Lesser Occultation only removed the Imam's body from the world, not his spiritual guidance. However, under the threat of orthodox Muslims, the Hidden Imam entered the period of Greater Occultation which is still continuing. In the Greater Occultation, the Imam is still the spiritual guide and light of the world with one exception: there is no longer any direct communication between humanity and the Imam. The Occultation, then, is a profound spiritual tragedy for the world. It means that the spiritual guide to the earth, the gift of God to humanity, which, throughout the ages has lived, breathed, and conversed with humanity, is out of reach. The Imam is the center of light in the world; the Occultation is the extinguishing of that light for the rest of humanity.
Imam: a title of various Muslim leaders, especially of one succeeding Muhammad as leader of Shiite Islam.
Caliph: the chief Muslim civil and religious ruler, regarded as the successor of Muhammad. The caliph ruled in Baghdad until 1258 and then in Egypt until the Ottoman conquest of 1517; the title was then held by the Ottoman sultans until it was abolished in 1924 by Atatürk.
Mujtahid: a person accepted as an original authority in Islamic law. Such authorities continue to be recognized in the Shia tradition, but Sunni Muslims accord this status only to the great lawmakers of early Islam.
Keddie, N.R. & Richard, Y. 2003, Modern Iran: roots and results of revolution, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.
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