They had no desire to study a new religion, even at the command of their King, and, judging that any change would be irksome, they sided with the Moullas, and without display refused to be Sunnis.

Nadir's devotion to ambition was greater than his love of religion, and his object in trying to drive all into one creed was to remove the obstacles to the progress of his Imperial power among the Sunnis of India, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Asia Minor.

On issuing his mandate to form the Shiahs into a new branch of the true faith, he intimated to the Emperor of Constantinople his high aim at general concord among Mohammedans.
Islam, as it was forced on Persia, was the faith of foreign conquerors and oppressors, so it never has had the same considerable influence on the people as elsewhere.

This, taken with their habits of freedom of thought and love of romance and poetry, inclined them to champion the Shiah schism, which, on the fall of the Arab power, they adopted for their National Church.

I refer to this in connection with what is now reported of Jemal-ed-Din's relations with the chiefs of the State Church party at Constantinople, for in his preachings in Persia there were clear signs of movement towards a great Mohammedan revival, which was to restore Islam to its old dominant position in the world..