Islam is split into two broad streams, as you probably know. The majority stream are the Sunnis, dominated by the Saudis, who have a lot of money to spend on promoting such things. The minority stream are the Shias, who are led by the Iranians or as they often prefer to be known, the Persians. Shia means 'partisans (or followers) of Ali'. Hussain bin Ali was the grandson of the Prophet Mahomad, his mother was the Prophet's daughter Fatima. He is known as the Imam Hussain. Imam Hussain was killed in battle at Kerbala, now situated in modern day Iraq. You've probably heard of it, it is a major pilgrimage site. The day of remembrance for Hussainj's death is called Asura. Hussain's line ended with the Twelfth Imam. He is now technically in occulation, meaning he is hidden.
What the Iranians are waiting for is the return of the Twelfth Imam, an event which will be similar to the Christian End of Days. What's freaky -- and not a little disturbing to those of us who have read Norman Cohn's magisterial history of similar Christian messianic movements in the Middle Ages, 'The Pursuit of the Millennium' -- is that the ayatollahs claim that they have been talking to the Twelfth Imam.
Where this may lead can be gathered by the fact that the Anglo-Sudan War in the late nineteenth century was inspired by a man who claimed to be the Mahdi -- another name for the Twelfth Imam. His followers carried amulets that supposedly made them immune to bullets, an illusion that the British Martini Henrys soon dispelled. But that wasn't before they killed off 'Chinese' Gordon, one of the Victorian Age's greatest sons.
The Persians, of course, regard the Arabs as savages fresh out of the desert, while they are the inheritors of a civilization that goes back for millennia. For all that, these millenarian fantasies make me feel distinctly queasy. After all, a nuke is much more effective and harder to counter than an amulet.
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