Representing the second largest Shia community, the Ismailis have had their own complex history. The history and origins of Ismailis go back to the medieval times during which the Ismailis established states of their own on separate occasions, and for relatively long periods played crucial parts in the history of the Muslim world. During the […]

The history and doctrine of The Twelvers or Ithna asharis, who would become the predominant Shia community believing in a line of twelve (Arabic, ithnaʿashar) imams, evolved out of the earlier Imami Shiism as it had been consolidated by Imam Jaʿfar al-Sadiq. This branch of Shiism is of high significance among all Shia branches which […]

Islam is a civilization as well as a major world religion, with some 1.3 billion Muslims scattered across almost every region of the globe, especially in the Middle East (the birthplace of Islam), Asia and Africa. Currently, around 15 per cent of the Muslim population of the world belong to various communities or different branches […]