ABSTRACT
This chapter describes Shi'ism as a political force in the Middle East, during the tenth and eleventh centuries. A Shi'a Muslim, in contrast, is a partisan of Ali as Muhammad's true successor, at least as imam or spiritual guide of the umma, and of one of the several lines of Ali's descendants. Even in Umayyad times, some Turks became Muslims and served in Arab armies in Transoxiana and Khurasan. The Kharijites were prepared to obey any adult male Muslim who would uphold the laws of Islam. They found Egypt, which had been ruled by several dynasties since Ahmad ibn Tulun had taken power there in 868. Persian language, literature, and culture made a major comeback, but not the Zoroastrian religion. Given its essentially genealogical differences, Shi'ism split into many sects. To the Fatimids Tunisia seemed too remote a base from which to build a new universal Muslim empire to replace the faltering Abbasids.
