Shi’ism functioned to differentiate Iran from all its Sunni neighbors

Evidence

Shi‘ism brought a second important feature, and that is differentiation from all the neighbors: from the Ottomans in the west, from the central Asian states in the north-east, from the Indian-Muslim states in the south-east. Practically all of these were Sunni states. True, Persian was used as a classical language, a literary language and even at times a diplomatic language by all three neighbors, the Ottomans, the Central Asians, and the Indians. But the crucial difference between the Sunni and Shi‘ite realms remained. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 307

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to the general pattern that shared language can coexist with religious division that is the operative boundary — echoes the later analysis of religiosity as differentiation.

Related

• Shi’ism served as Iran’s marker of difference from all bordering Sunni states (similarity 0.97)
• Persian culture and Shi’ism held Iran’s ethnic periphery together after the Safavids (similarity 0.82)
• Ethnic and sectarian divides made the Iran-Iraq war multi-layered (similarity 0.82)
• The Iranian revolution’s appeal crossed sectarian lines where Shi’ism was unknown (similarity 0.79)
• Western observers analogized Shi’ah-Sunni schism to Catholic-Protestant division. (similarity 0.79)