Shiism

I

Introduction

Shiism, collective term for several distinct Muslim sects that make up some 10 per cent of the Muslim world—the rest being chiefly Sunni. Sunnis and Shiites differ from each other in many ways. They disagree least over ritual and law and diverge most in ethos, theology and how they conceive legitimate authority.

II

Early Shiism and its Origins

The term Shiism is derived from the Arabic phrase Shiat Ali, which means “the partisans of Ali ibn Abi Talib”. Ali was the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and the fourth leader (caliph) of the newly established Islamic community ( umma) after Muhammad's death. Sunnis also revere him as the last of “the four righteous caliphs”.

As with all Islamic groups, Shiites today see their form of Islam as the purest representation of Muhammad's original religion: the first Shiites, however, did not subscribe to any single or discernible set of religious tenets. What held them together was simply their political support for Ali as leader of the Muslim community and their opposition to those who (from their point of view) had rebelled against him, like Muawiya (the founder of the Umayyad dynasty of the caliphate) and the Kharijis. After Ali's assassination in ad 661, some Shiites looked to his various sons as his rightful successors to the office of caliph: if Ali's descendants became rivals and their Shiite followers divided accordingly, Shiites were at least united in the principle that the caliphate should remain in Ali's house. Only later did Shiites begin to develop distinct religious beliefs that set them apart from other, non-Shiite Muslims.

During the Umayyad period (ad 661-750), Shiites came to call descendants of Ali whom they saw as meriting (but denied) leadership of the Muslim community Imams. While all sorts of religious notions were advanced by Shiites, four key beliefs found general acceptance: (1) that Ali had been chosen by God as Imam and rightful leader of the world—of Muslims and non-Muslims alike; (2) that the universe's existence depends on the presence of a living Imam; (3) that all Imams have to be descended from Ali; (4) that Ali and his Imam-descendants possess superhuman qualities which other Muslims recognize solely in Prophets—such as infallibility ( isma), miraculous powers, and divinely-granted knowledge (ilm). These beliefs form part of the mainstream Shiite doctrine of the Imamate. This doctrine remains at the core of most Shiite groups up to today (with the exception of the Zaidis—see below) and contrasts sharply with Sunni faith, which sees the Islamic community's legitimate leader as being an ordinary man, albeit exceptionally pious and learned in the religious sciences, to be elected by other ordinary men. Some on the fringes of the Shiite movement who were seen by the mainstream as extremists ( ghulat)—such as the Ali-illahis and the Druzes—took this doctrine further and declared the Imams to be divine incarnations, so placing their beliefs outside the pale of Islam.

III

The Various Shiite Groups and Sects

Since Ali had more than one wife and a number of male descendents, early Shiites grouped themselves according to which of the various rival Alids they recognized and followed as the Imam. Though most Shiite groups eventually came to restrict the Imams to the line of descent from Ali through his wife Fatima (the daughter of the Prophet), some such as the Kaysanis had early on recognized a line through Ibn Hanafiyya, the son of another wife: it was from designation by one of these Kaysani Imams that the early Abbasid Caliphs claimed to have received their legitimacy.

Even though Shiite groups did not keep themselves in strict isolation, there was sufficient separation between most for them to develop in time into distinct sects with separate religious tenets and practices. Some of these sects split up further over successional disputes to become new sects or even religions.

IV

Contemporary Shiite Sects

Today the most important Shiite sects are the Imamis, the Ismailis, and the Zaidis.

The Imamis (also known as Twelvers) are by far the largest of all Shiite sects even though their Imams never gained political power like the Imams of the Ismailis and Zaidis. They recognize a line of 12 successive Imams, the last of whom they believe to remain alive to this day, despite his having gone into occultation in ad 874. The Imami sect has been the official and majority religion of Iran since the early 16th century ad, and is also strongly represented throughout the Middle East and Asia, especially in Iraq, South Lebanon, India, and Pakistan. The Bahai religion, though quite distinct from Islam, originates from Babism, a movement that broke away from Imami Shiism in Iran in the 19th century.

The Ismailis (also known as Seveners and Batinis) have no state today but enjoyed several in the Middle Ages. They originally accepted only seven successive Imams and believed, in similar fashion to the Imamis, that the last had gone into occultation in the 8th century. For many Ismailis, however, the line was resumed two centuries later by a variety of rival claimants. One line of Imams, known as the Fatimids, established a dynastic caliphate in North Africa, founded Cairo and reigned over Egypt for over two centuries (909-1171). Other Ismailis—like the Carmathians (Qaramita), who founded their own state in Bahrain and Oman—failed to recognize them or any other claimant.

The Fatimids themselves split up into several branches during the 11th century: one branch, the Nizaris, broke with the Imam-caliphs of Cairo and founded their own independent mini-state in Iran and Syria. Their enemies called them the Hashishiyya (Assassins) to allude to their alleged use of the drug hashish. Because stories of the Nizaris' daring acts of political murder had spread to the Crusaders, the term “assassin” became widespread in Europe for describing a fanatic or hired killer. The Nizari Imams are regarded as the ancestors of the Aga Khan, which is the official title of the Imam of the Khojas—the largest group of Ismailis today. Khojas believe that the present Aga Khan is their 49th Imam. The Tayyibis were also a Fatimid sub-sect, though they followed a line of Imams that ended with another occultation. Many migrated from Cairo to found a community in Yemen in the 12th century; later on, in the 16th century, an offshoot left Yemen for India and founded there the Bohra (or Bohara) community. Because the Bohras believe their Imam to be occulted they follow a religious leader, the absolute Dai, whom they regard as the sole representative of the hidden Imam and highest authority in doctrinal and legal matters. The Druzes too, though usually regarded now as non-Islamic, also started out as an 11th century offshoot of Fatimid Ismailism.

The Zaidi Imams, named after Zaid ibn Ali (d. 740), do not subscribe to the mainstream Shiite doctrine of the Imamate. Zaid, the eponymous founder of Zaidism, actively challenged his quietist brother, Muhammad al-Baqir (whom Imamis and Ismailis respectively see as the 5th and 4th Imam) for the Imamate by rebelling against the Umayyad caliph of the day. Zaid's claim, which remains at the core of his sect and at loggerheads with Imamis and Ismailis, is that a true Shiite should follow any descendent of Ali and Fatima who is learned, pious, and politically active—that is, who is willing to rebel against the usurper authorities for his claim to the office of caliph. The Imam then lacks any superhuman qualities: with the exception that he must be descended from Ali ibn Talib, he resembles much more the ideal Sunni caliph.

The Zaidis founded their own caliphate and state in Yemen, which survived invasions and occupations from the 9th century up to 1963. Another Zaidi state, though short-lived and without its own Imams, was founded in the 9th century in Tabaristan, south of the Caspian Sea in Iran. As with Ismailis, Zaidis are divided up into further subsects that differed initially over the identity of their Imams and later over various legal and doctrinal points.