Shi'i or Shi'ite refers to those Muslims within the minority trend in Islam, who predominate in Iran, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, northern Yemen, form the largest section of the population in Iraq and Bahrain, and are estimated to form the largest community in Lebanon. They are found in smaller numbers in many other Muslim countries—the Gulf countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, for instance.
The Shi'i trend in Islam developed as a result of the politics surrounding the rulership or governance of the early Islamic community, the Umma. The Shi'i believe in the significance of Ali, the fourth Caliph (successor) in 656-61, as the legitimate successor to the Prophet who had died in 632. Ali was cousin to the Prophet, married to Fatima, the Prophet's daughter, and produced the only grandsons of the Prophet. He was an early believer in the Prophet and those that supported him were referred to as the Shi'at Ali (Party of Ali). This later became elaborated into a religious doctrine complete with theology. At the time, though, the first civil war (fitna, 656-61) in the Islamic community occurred between Ali as Caliph and Mucawiyah, the leader of the Umayyads. The Umayyads won, establishing the Umayyad dynasty and caliphate (661-750). Hussein, Ali's second son and, in the Shi'i chronology, regarded as the third Caliph or Imam, was killed (680) at Kerbala (Iraq) by the forces of the Umayyad caliphate. This event gave rise to the annual Shi'i remembrance of the martyrdom of Hussein, and his place of death and tomb at Kerbala became a point of pilgrimage. These events form the political background to the later theological development of Shi'ism.
According to Shi'ism, the first Imam (divinely inspired leader) after Muhammad—as the Shi'i designate the legitimate leader of the Umma (Community of Believers)—was regarded to have been Ali, the fourth Caliph, and the proper succession should have been from Muhammad to Ali and then to his descendants according to the possession of those qualities of seniority and reputation such as charisma, experience, and others necessary to carry out the duties of the commander of the faithful (Amir al-Mu'minin) and head of state. In the view of the Imamis (beginning with Jafar al-Sadik, sixth Imam, 702-65, considered as founder of the Imamis, also known as Ithna Ashari or Twelvers), the largest subdivision in Shi'ism, there have been a succession of twelve recognized Imams descended from Ali. This succession became a matter of contention among the Shi'i leading to their fragmentation. The other two major subdivisions resulting from this contention are the Zaidis and Ismailis (both originating from the mid-700s). The Imami Shi'I believed that Muhammad had designated Ali as successor and, in this way, a special quality was, thus, transmitted through the succession. Only the Imam, in effect selected ‘by divine right’, could be the final interpreter of the law on earth. In the absence of the Imam (according to the doctrine of occultation, the twelfth or ‘hidden’ Imam disappeared in 260 h/878 ad, in effect, suspending the Imamate), the mujtahid—a scholar learned in Islamic Law—may interpret the Law.
The Shi'i have their own sunna (traditions) of the Prophet and their own hadith (sayings and doings of the Prophet). Each Shi'i subdivision developed separate schools of legal jurisprudence or interpretation. Within the Jafari law school of the Imamis two schools of thought emerged from the eighth century and crystallized during the seventeenth century: the Akhbari (traditions of the Imams as the source of religious knowledge) which took a restrictive approach to ijtihad (the application of reason to the solutions to legal matters), and the Usuli (roots) who utilized ijtihad by adopting reasoned argumentation in jurisprudence and theology. Usulis emphasized the role of the mujtahid who was capable of independently interpreting the sacred sources as an intermediary of the Hidden Imam and, thus, serve as a guide to the community. This meant that legal interpretations were kept flexible to take account of changing conditions and the dynamics of the times. The latter (Usuli) school became predominant in Iran in the eighteenth century and it is within this school that the Ayatollah Khomeini was located. The Akhbari are now located in Basra, its environs and Bahrain. (See also Sunni, Islamic politics, Islamic fundamentalism, fatwa).
— Barbara Allen Roberson
