ABSTRACT
The first and no doubt most significant turning point in Shi'i history is the 4th/10th century. This glorious period, although plagued by constant political conflict, was the age of Islamic Renaissance and Humanism, a golden age of Islamic culture and civilization. The 4th/10th century has been called the "Shi'i century" of Islam. Buyid princes, either Zaydi or Twelver Shia, ruled over Baghdad, the capital of the empire. The Buyids came from a large aristocratic family in northern Iran. The fall of the Buyids in the second half of the 5th/11th century, the restoration of a rigorous form of Sunni Islam, and the brutal repression of the Shia were the chief reasons for the gradual relocation of the intellectual centre of Shi'ism from Baghdad to Hilla, another town in Iraq. Another decisive turning point in Shi'i history is the rule of the Safavid dynasty in Iran and the proclamation of Twelver Shi'ism as the state religion.
