Anjudan sits in Arak County, near the Shi'i holy centers of Qom and Kashan. Its appeal to the Nizari Ismaili Imamate in the late 14th century was partly geographic: it was far from the major centers of Sunni power in Tabriz and Herat, yet close enough to important Shi'i networks to maintain communication. Earlier efforts to reestablish the Imamate at the legendary fortress of Alamut -- the original stronghold of the Nizari Ismailis -- had failed. The practice of taqiyya, or concealment of faith for self-preservation, had not been enough to protect the community in the South Caspian region. Anjudan offered something different: obscurity as a form of defense.

When Timur's army reached Anjudan in May 1393, the village was already prepared. Residents had fortified their settlement and built a network of underground tunnels for escape and defense. The Persian historian Khwandamir records that the Ismaili community had been growing politically influential in the region known as Persian Iraq, and that local Sunni leaders had brought their complaints directly to Timur, possibly provoking the assault. When the tunnels resisted direct attack, Timur's soldiers improvised, diverting water from a channel above to flood the passages. The village was devastated -- it was Timur's second assault on Ismaili communities in as many years, following his campaign in Mazandaran the previous year. Yet as the 15th-century historian Mirkhwand later noted, Anjudan remained Ismaili. The faith endured where the fortifications had not.

The Imams who led the community from Anjudan left behind writings that reveal a tradition balancing political survival with spiritual depth. Abd al-Salam Shah, who led the Imamate from 1480 to roughly 1493, received his title -- meaning "servant of peace" -- from his father, Imam Mustansir bi'llah, who bestowed it upon him because Abd al-Salam himself reportedly declared that "contentment was more important than conquest." His works, including the Five Discourses and decrees preserved in Persian, reflect a leadership shaped by exile rather than empire. His successor, Gharib Mirza, acquired his epithet from the Arabic word for exile itself -- ghurba -- after political opposition forced him from his seat. His mausoleum, known locally as Shah Gharib, still stands in Anjudan today, one of the few physical traces of this long chapter of spiritual leadership.

The Anjudan period produced more than theological texts. The poet Da'i Anjudani, likely a high-ranking member of the Ismaili hierarchy, and the scholar Mawlana Malik Tayfur Anjudani were among the literary figures who flourished during this revival. The fortress of Nurabad near the village is said to owe its name to Nur al-din, a younger brother of Imam Gharib Mirza. In the late 19th century, Aga Khan I and Aga Khan II sent financial support to the Anjudan community and conducted restoration projects on monuments of significance in the region. In 1726, the village witnessed yet another convulsion of history when Ottoman and Afghan Hotaki forces clashed nearby following the collapse of the Safavid dynasty. Through it all, Anjudan persisted -- a village that history kept finding, no matter how hard it tried to remain hidden.