Table of Contents
cultural forms and rituals. This also meant that the people of this region were controlled and manipulated by the Muslim clergy. In no way were they prepared for the imminent coming of the Promised One in their midst. Shaykh Ahmad was from ShĂ’a background, and so he began his mission by going to Najaf and Karbalá’ which were the main centers of ShĂ’a Islamic learning at that time.4ACT1
3 Archival painting from Dawn-Breakers Chapter 1, p1
4 Najaf and Karbalá’ are in modern day Iráq. In the 1800s this area was part of the Ottoman empire and separate from Persia [modern ĂŤrán]. The Ottoman empire was ruled by the Caliphate and had its capital in Constantinople [modern Istanbul, Turkey]. Persia was ruled was ruled by the Qájár dynasty who had Tihrán as their capital. The Ottoman empire was mainly SunnĂ Islam. The Qájár empire was mainly ShĂ’a Islam. [For an overview of the basic tenets of Islam and the ShĂ’a, see Appendix: Brief Background on ShĂ’a Islam.]
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