ABSTRACT
IT WAS IN IRAN that Shi′a, the second most important branch of Islam, flourished, and it became the official religion of the country. Today, nearly seventy million Iranians practise the religion and for the last five hundred years the country has been the centre of the Shi′a religion. However, the Shi′a religion soon found followers all over the Islamic world, from the Middle East to Africa, and even spread to the Caribbean.
