ABSTRACT
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's ascent to power in Iran opened a new era for the Shi'is of the Arab Gulf states, who are separated by shallow waters from the epicenter of Islamic revolution. There are vast differences between the situation of the Gulf's Shi'is and that of their coreligionists across the water in Iran. Since the mid-1920s, centralization of power and the drive for economic development have diminished the physical dangers to which the Shi'i Gulf communities once had been exposed. The location of Shi'i communities near the oil fields and in places such as Ras Tanura in al-Ahsa, just above the entrances to major ports, made Shi'i cooperation essential to national security. The accelerated modernization experienced by Arab Gulf states created social problems that affected the Shi'is as well. The Shi'is of the Gulf appear to have appreciated, better than Iran and some of their own religious leaders, the precariousness of their social and political position.
