This ground-breaking a nd controversial wo r k locates the antecedents of today's Islamic 'fundamentalism' in 16th a nd 17th century Iran a nd the fo r ced conversion of the Sunnite population of Iran to the largely alien doctrines of Twelver Shi'ism, the concomitant extirpation of Sufism a nd philosophy, a nd the gradual rise of the 'faqih' o r jurist.