The genesis of Shi’a Islam is rooted in the idea that the charismatic and politico-religious authority possessed by the prophet Muhammad was transferred to his biological descendants after his death in 632 CE. The resulting claim to the rightful leadership of the Muslim community (the ummah) was thus supposed to pass, in the form of the Imamate, to the descendants of Muhammad’s daughter Fatima (606–632) and her husband Ali b. Abi Talib (600–661).