By the end of the eighth century, under the fabled
Caliph Harun al-Rashid, the Muslim empire stretched all
the way from Spain to India, and Baghdad had become
the center of an extraordinary ɻowering in the arts and
sciences. Mathematics reached a new level of
sophistication; indeed, the word “algebra” comes from
Arabic. Literary output soared, most notably with the
famed Thousand and One Nights, which originated, as its
stories put it, “in the time of Harun al-Rashid.”
Exhaustive histories, the ones on which this book is
based, were compiled. But for the Shia, it all came at a
high price.
The Abbasids had seized power with strong Shia
support, since they claimed to be descendants of
Muhammad’s uncle Abbas. If not exactly Ahl al-Bayt,
they presented themselves as at least very close. But once
in power, they dropped the Shia banner, and the Shia
reacted with a deep sense of betrayal—and with division
on how to counter such betrayal. Those taking a more
activist anti-Abbasid stand included the Zaydis, a
Yemeni denomination, some of whom maintained that
the imamate had ended with only seven Imams, and the
Ismailis, who at ɹrst believed it had ended with ɹve, and
struck out for power in their own right. One Ismaili
branch went on to found the Fatimid dynasty, build the
city of Cairo, and rule Egypt from the tenth to the
twelfth century, while another is still headed by the Aga
Khan. But the vast majority of Shia would eventually