ersian language and cultural identity, though the language adopted a great many Arabic words. As though to underline their continuing distinction from their Arab fellow believers, however, the Persians tended toward the Shia form of Islam.
This was reinforced by developments from the middle Islamic period, which also led to a further evolution of Shia doctrine, notably the concept of the "hidden Imam." With the rise of the Safavi Persian state in the 16th century CE (9th Islamic century), Persian Shiism developed a highly distinctive hierarchical structure, markedly different from the entirely non-hierarchical structure of Sunni Islam. The Shia structures in Persia spread in varying degrees to Shia communities elsewhere. In spite of the Persian associations of Shiism, significant communities of Shia Arabs remained widespread across the Arabic world.
II. Sunni and Shia in the Arabian Gulf
These communities were however particularly large in regions close to Iran, in what is now southern Ira
...