Category: Shia Branches of Islam
Celebrating religious events is of high significance among Shias and different branches of this sect share many rituals. There are many events celebrated by Alawites and other religions or sects of Shiism but they have different interpretations and they celebrate them in different ways. Shared festivals between Alawites and Mullims: The Alawites, whose doctrines have […]
The Nusayris-ʿAlawis, whose history and origins were discussed in the previous post, have remained a secretive, esoteric community, observing taqiyya and closely guarding the religious doctrines of Alawites. Even within their community, Nusayri teachings are accessible only to the initiated members (khassa), as distinct from the uninitiated masses (ʿamma), while women are excluded from the […]
The origins of Alawits branch of Shiism or the Nusayris may be traced to a certain Abu Shuʿayb Muhammad b. Nusayr al-Namiri (or al-Numayri), who hailed from the ghulat circles on the fringes of Imami Shiʿism Ibn Nusayr was a supporter of the tenth and eleventh Twelver Shiʿi Imams and later proclaimed the divinity of […]
Zaydi Shiʿism was initially formed during the 2nd/8th century by the merger of two currents in Kufan Shiʿism; the two doctrinal currents with their Shiʿi adherents were designated in heresiographical literature as the Batriyya and the Jarudiyya, also referred to as the ‘weak’ and the ‘strong’ Zaydis, respectively. Disagreements: The main disagreement regarding the concept […]
The history and origins of the Zaydiyya as another major Shiʿi Muslim community has to be studied along with other branches of this sect of Islam which were discussed in the pervious posts. The general influence and geographical distribution of the Zaydiyya branch of Shiʿi Islam, named after their fourth imam, Zayd b. ʿAli Zayn […]
The history of the imamate in Ismaili branch of Shiism may be traced to the dispute over the succession to Imam Jaʿfar al-Sadiq, who died in 148/765. According to the majority of the available sources, Imam al-Sadiq had originally designated his second son Ismaʿil, the eponym of the Ismaʿiliyya, as his successor to the imamate […]
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 […]