Page "Taqiyya" Paragraph 12

According to Shi ' a scholar Muhammad Husain Javari Sabinal, Shi ' ism would not have spread at all if not for taqiyya, referring to instances where Shi ' a have been ruthlessly persecuted by the Sunni political elite during the Umayyad and Abbasid empires.

Indeed for the Ismailis, the persistence and prosperity of the community today owes largely to the careful safeguarding of the beliefs and teachings of the Imams during the Ilkhanate, the Safawid dynasty, and other periods of persecution.