'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎106v] (217/610)

* Prof. Browne’s introduction to his edition of Nuqtatu-’l-Kaf, page 20-
This was the last serious attempt of the house of All to
recover the Caliphate.
Husain, however, and his descendents were venerated by
their adherents as “ Imams ”, or spiritual and temporal rulers
and leaders by divine right as the hereditary successors of the
Caliph Ali, wrongfully excluded from the Caliphate by the
Umayyads and subsequent usurpers.
In 873 the twelfth Imam Mahdi disappeared, and the Shi’ites
believe that he will reappear on the day of judgment at the
temple of Gauhar Shad at Meshed. They call him ‘ Sahib-i-
Zaman,’ lord of time.
The Safavi dynasty was descended from the house of Ali
through the seventh Imam, Musa Qasim, and introduced Shi’ism
as the national religion. The Shah was both saint and king.
After the overthrow of the Safavis an attempt made by Nadir
Shah to unite Shi’ah and Sunni was a failure. More recently
Sultan Abdul Hamid of Turkey approached Nasir-ud-Din Shah
with a view to the .latter’s recognising him as Caliph, but his
overtures were rejected and the breach between Shi’ah and
Sunni remained.
This schism is not a mere question of names or persons but
of principles.
*“ That the prophet must have successors and Island a
supreme head or pontiff is recognised by both parties, but as
to the nature and method of selection of that head they differ
widely. According to the Sunni view, any suitable candidate
•chosen by the consensus of opinion of the Muslims is competent
to become the Caliph.
The Shi’ah, on the other hand, hold firmly to the principle
that the Imam, or supreme pontiff of the Faith, must be a decen-
dant of the prophet (which practically means a descendant
of Fatima and Ali), and not only a descendant but a parti
cular descendant, nominated explicitly by his predecessor,
i.e., by the prophet in the case of the first Imam, and in the
other cases by the preceding Imam. Thus the right of the
Khalifa to rule depends on the will of the people, the right of the
Imam on the will of God. To the Persians imbued as they
were with the belief in the Divine Eight of Kings, and accustom
ed from Sasanian times to regard their rulers as Divine beings,
The Shi’ah theory of the Imamate was naturally the more
acceptable, and it is in Persia that it has always had its strong
hold.”