'A fascinating account...immensely absorbing and instructive. ... An in-depth account of how competing understandings of Islam from the early sixteenth century onwards gradually led to the establishment of Twelver Shi'ism as the official religion of the Iranian state. A masterpiece, which cannot be ignored by anyone interested in the history of the Twelvers and of Iran more generally.' - The Muslim World Book Review

• Chapter 1 Belief and submission reconsidered; Chapter 2 Religion in medieval Iran and the rise of the Safavids; Chapter 3 The consolidation of Safavid power and the rise of Twelver Shi’ite externalism; Chapter 4 ‘Allama Majlisi; Chapter 5 Externalism in focus; Chapter 6 Conclusions;