Series · political thriller
The Twelfth Imam
The Twelfth Imam series by Joel C. Rosenberg has 3 books and is best read in publication order, starting with The Twelfth Imam (2010).
- Books
- 3 books
- First published
- 2010
- Status
- completed
- Last checked
Start here: The Twelfth Imam (2010) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
The Twelfth Imam
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Twelfth Imam - Book 2:
The Tehran Initiative
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Tehran Initiative - Book 3:
Damascus Countdown
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Damascus Countdown
About The Twelfth Imam
Rosenberg's second series moves its cast and its central premise from the Israeli-Palestinian-focused Last Jihad books to Iran. David Shirazi is a CIA officer working undercover inside Iran's telecommunications sector as the regime races toward a nuclear weapon while its Twelver Shia leadership publicly anticipates the imminent return of the Mahdi (the "Twelfth Imam") -- a messianic figure whose arrival, in the series' reading of Iranian eschatology, is meant to be hastened by regional chaos and war with Israel and the West. Shirazi has to build and run a spy network inside the regime while an American president has to decide whether to strike Iran's nuclear program before it becomes irreversible, across a tightening three-book countdown.
As with the Last Jihad series, Rosenberg pairs conventional espionage-thriller plotting -- double agents, centrifuge facilities, assassination attempts -- with prophecy-driven stakes drawn from his own reading of Islamic eschatology and, in the nonfiction books he published alongside this series (Inside the Revolution, Inside the Revival), his reporting on the Iranian regime and Iran's underground Christian movement. The trilogy is self-contained and reaches a definite conclusion in Damascus Countdown.
Frequently asked questions
How many books are in the Twelfth Imam series?
Three: The Twelfth Imam (2010), The Tehran Initiative (2011), and Damascus Countdown (2013).
Is this connected to The Last Jihad?
No -- different lead character (CIA officer David Shirazi rather than Jon Bennett) and no shared cast or continuing storyline, though both series share Rosenberg's Middle East geopolitical-thriller style and prophecy-driven stakes.
What is the 'Twelfth Imam'?
In Twelver Shia Islam, the Mahdi -- a messianic figure believed to have gone into hiding and destined to return. The series imagines the Iranian regime deliberately fostering regional war to hasten that return, and builds its plot around a CIA effort to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons in that context.
Reading order last verified .