The Shi'ite communities in the Muslim world are deeply divided on the WuF concept, in which a chosen jurisprudent assumes the role of deputy for al-Mahdi - the missing 12th Imam in Ja'fari Shi'ism - and thus rules with divine powers over a trans-national theocracy supposed to be universal. Most Shi'ites reject this concept, developed about 100 years ago by Ja'fari theologians who argued that the Shi'ites could no longer await the return of al-Mahdi until their lives were regulated.

An earlier concept of Shi'ite theocratic rule was tried five centuries ago by a group of Turkomans inspired by a Ja'fari theologian of Jabal 'Amel - a region in today's southern Lebanon - who ...

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