Whirlwind by James Clavell

the shi'ites:
     
     
piety, poverty, learning but only the holy books, the koran and the sunna and leadership, with a big emphasis on leadership. in islam there's no separation between religion and politics, there can be none, and the shiite mullahs of iran, since the beginning, have been fanatic guardians of the koran and sunna, fanatic leaders and whenever necessary fighting revolutionaries."
     
     
"if an ayatollah or mullah's not a priest, what is he?"
     
     
"mullah means 'leader,' he who leads prayers in a mosque. anyone can be a mullah, providing he's a man, and muslim. anyone. there's no clergy in islam, none, no one between you and god, that's one of the beauties of it, but not to shitites. shi'ites believe that, after the prophet, the earth should be ruled by a charismatic, semidivine infallible leader, the imam, who acts as an intermediary between the human and the divine and that's where the great split came about between sunni and shiite, and their wars were just as bloody as the plantagenets. where sunnis believe in consensus, shi'ites would accept the imam's authority if he were to exist."
     
     
"then who chooses the man to be imam?"
     
     
"that was the whole problem. when mohammed died by the way he never claimed to be anything other than mortal although last of the prophets he left neither sons nor a chosen successor, a caliph. shi'ites believed leadership should remain with the prophet's family and the caliph could only be ali, his cousin and son-in-law who had married fatima, his favorite daughter. but the orthodox sunnis, following historic tribal custom which applies even today, believed a leader should only be chosen by consensus. they proved to be stronger, so the first three caliphs were voted in two were murdered by other sunnis then, at long last for the shitites, ali became caliph, in their fervent belief the first imam."
     
     
"they claimed he was semidivine?"
     
     
"divinely guided, mac. ali lasted five years, then he was murdered shi'ites say martyred. his eldest son became imam, then was thrust aside by a usurping sunni. his second son, the revered, twenty-five- year-old hussain, raised an army against the usurper but was slaughtered martyred with all his people, including his brother's two young sons, his own five-year-old son, and suckling babe. that happened on the tenth day of muharram, in a.d. 650 by our counting, 61 by theirs, and they still celebrate hussain's martyrdom as their most holy day."
     
     
"that's the day they have the processions and whip themselves, stick hooks into themselves, mortify themselves?"
     
     
"yes, mad from our point of view. reza shah outlawed the custom but shiism is a passionate religion, needing outward expressions of penitence and mourning. martyrdom is deeply embedded in shitites, and in iran venerated. also rebellion against usurpers."
     
     
"so the battle is joined, the faithful against the shah?"
     
     
"oh, yes. fanatically on both sides. for the shi'ites, the mullah is the sole interpreting medium which therefore gives him enormous power. he is interpreter, lawgiver, judge, and leader. and the greatest of mullahs are ayatollahs."
     
     
and khomeini is the grand ayatollah, mciver was thinking, staring at the bloody nightscape over jaleh. he's it, and like it or not, all the killing, all the bloodshed and suffering and madness, have to be laid at his doorstep, justified or not...
     
     
"mac!"
     
     
"oh, sorry, charlie," he said, coming back to himself. "i was miles away. what?" he glanced at the kitchen door. it was still closed.
     
     
"don't you think you should get genny out of iran?" pettikin asked quietly. "it's getting pretty smelly indeed."
     
     
"she won't bloody go. i've told her fifty times, asked her fifty times, but she's as obstinate as a bloody mule like your claire," mciver replied as quietly. "she just bloody smiles and says: 'when you go, i go."' he finished his whisky, glanced at the door, and hastily poured