(...)
Shia Muslims make up of just over 10% of the world's Muslims today. Shia are primarily centered in Iran, where many families can trace their lineages to the Prophet and his companions. I consider the idea of North Africans adopting the Shia sect kind of far fetched, unless you had an enclave of people who claimed succession to the Prophet, as in Iran. All I could do is accept the fiction at face value and not to apply too much real world rationality to it...
Considering the DCMS couldn't possibly supply replacement parts for Star League Mechs in Arkab inventory, I have to assume that the Azami had their own, discrete production...and I'm certain Comstar would be even more shocked that ROM never caught on over the centuries...That being said, the DCMS were not in "need to know" position, they'd just be a security risk.
After the Iranian Sassanid Empire had fallen in the 7th century, the islamic arab conquerors tried to assimilate Iran. The dominating religion in the conquered and occupied iranian lands was first the sunni islam. Nevertheless the assimilation-attempt of the islamic arabs failed. The Iranians (who are not the same race as arabs) were finally successful in keeping their own identity. Two major points helped them to keep a distance to the arabs:
1. Unlike the other nations who were conquered by the islamic conquest the iranians did not replaced their language with the arabic language. The iranian poet Ferdowsi wrote the "Book of the Kings", an epic poem consisting of 50000 (!) double line verses, in iranian language. He specificly tried to avoid any arab word in his poem and created the key element to keep the iranian language alive until finally iranian rulers regained power in iranian territory.
2. In the 16th century - the ruling iranian Shah (King) wanted to devide his people from the dominating sunni empire: The turkish Ottomans had replaced the arabs as the leading sunnis. So the Shah proclaimed that Iran becomes a Shi'ite nation. To perform this religious change he requested the help from shiite clerics from the region but also from the area of today-lebanon.
But these are only some facts of the real history of our world.
In the BattleTech-universe it is described that a great and deadly plague hit North Africa. The same plague which saved btw centuries later the Azamis against the Kurita-invaders.
The north africans suffered because of this plague and for some reasons they adopted the shi' ite religion of Islam from Iran and became the "Azami". Maybe in this alternative universe the iranians sent medical help to North Africa combined with religious indoctrination.
Regarding the Star League equipment I totally agree that ComStar must have been also very surprised when the Azami used Star League Equipment against the Clans.
I dont think that the DCMS gave them these equipment (House Kurita got from ComStar some downgraded Star League Mechs and ASF for releasing Rasalhague in the independance). According to the 3039-war-book Theodore Kurita equipped only units which were absolutely loyal to him with these hardware: The Genyosha, the Ryuken and the Ghost regiments.
So I personally think that the Azami got their Star-League-equipment when they were part of the SLDF. During the SLDF-wars against the periphery states there was a Draconis-Auxiliary-Corps, consisting of 2 Sword-regiments, one Proserpina regiment and the 1st Arkab Legion. According to the source books the Arkab Legion fought in a honorable and human way - so while the enemies ordered to kill all Kuritans when they were taken prisoners the Arkab-Legion-warriors were specificly excluded from this kill-order.
Maybe not only the enemies but also the supply-officers of the SLDF were so impressed that they gave the Arkab Legion SLDF-hardware.
Still there is the question how the Azami managed to get these highend-equipment to one of their planets and how they managed to keep them operational after the fall of the Star League and the technological decline.
But it is a fascinating element of the BattleTech storyline :)
