From Africa to Asia, there are areas that are home to minority and, in some cases, majority groups of Twelver Shia. Geography and history place Iran at the center of these Shia worlds, but to what extent can we speak of an -Iranian model- that these groups follow?

This essential work explores the tenuous relations between these groups and Iran while shedding light on understudied communities, such as those in the Gulf, Turkey, Afghanistan, central Asia, and Senegal.

Sabrina Mervin is a senior researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the...