ShīʿiteArticle Free Pass Shīʿite, Arabic Shīʿī, collective
Shīʿah, member of the smaller of the two major branches of
Islam, distinguished from the majority Sunnis. Early in the
history of Islam, the Shīʿites were a political faction (Arabic
shīʿat ʿAlī, “party of ʿAlī”) that supported the power of ʿAlī
ibn Abī Ṭālib (the fourth caliph [khalīfah, successor of
Muhammad]) and, later, of his descendants. Starting as a
political faction, this group gradually developed into a
religious movement, Shīʿism, which not only influenced Sunni
Islam but also produced a number of important sects to which the
term Shīʿah is applied. The Prophet Muhammad died in ad 632
without an heir, none of his sons having survived to adulthood,
and a broad consensus of those present at Medina nominated his
longtime companion Abū Bakr as his successor. Abū Bakr died two
years later and was succeeded in the caliphate by his assistant
and adviser ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭab. When ʿUmar was assassinated by
a disgruntled Persian slave in 644, ʿUthmā