A term collectively applied to a number of Muslim sects that assert the primacy of the family of Muhammad, as represented by the Prophet’s son-in-law, ‘All ibn Abi Talib (d. 661) and his descendants.
The actual Arabic term is shl‘at ‘All (party of ‘Ali), which seems to have been used as early as the civil war during ‘All’s caliphate (656-661). After ‘All’s death the Shi‘ites continued to agitate on behalf of his family, and Shi‘ite rebellions caused considerable concern for both the Umayyad (661-750) and ‘Abbasid (750-1258) caliphates.
Shi‘ite doctrine is characterized most particularly by the recognition of the imams: individuals regarded as the spiritual leaders of the Muslim community. Each imam was meant to guide the Muslim community, a task in which he was assisted by the teachings of the one who designated him and by a closer connection to God, achieved through ilham (divine inspiration). Shi‘ites believe that Muhammad designated ‘All as the first imam, with a number of imams following him. Over time the Shi‘ites split into a number of subdivisions, each with their own doctrines and practices. One of the main features distinguishing between them was the number of imams they recognized. Some Shi‘ite groups still recognize living imams today, while others regard them as currently being hidden from the world. Several of these groups were important in the Muslim world during the period of the crusades.
The Ithna‘ashari Shi‘ites, often known as the Twelvers, or Imamis, recognize a line of twelve imams, starting with ‘Ali and passing down through his family. They believe that after the death of the eleventh imam, al-Hasan al-‘Askari (d. 874), his son, named Muhammad, went into a state of ghaybah (occultation), communicating with the world through a line of four emissaries. After the death of the last of these in 941, the imam entered a state of ghaybah kubra (greater occultation). This will last until the end of time, when he will return as the mahdi (“guided one”), or messiah. During the period of the crusades, many Bedouin tribesmen of the Near East were Ithna‘ashari Shi‘ites.
The Isma‘ilis, sometimes known as the Seveners, were a Shi‘ite sect that claimed that the sixth imam, Ja‘far al-Sadiq (d. 765), had nominated his son Isma‘il as his successor. When Isma‘il died in 755 before his father, Isma‘il’s supporters recognized his son Muhammad as the seventh and final imam, maintaining that he would also reappear as the mahdi at the end of time. They existed in secret until the middle of the ninth century, before emerging as two movements known collectively as the Isma‘ilis. The first of these, known as the Qarmatians, attained particular prominence in eastern Arabia in the ninth and tenth centuries. However, it was the second movement, the Fatimids, that was particularly important in the history of the crusades. The heads of the Fatimid dynasty, diverging from earlier Isma‘ili thought, claimed to be both rightful caliphs and true living imams descended from Muhammad ibn Isma‘il. They established themselves at Kairouan in North Africa in 909 and then moved their power base to Egypt after conquering al-Fustat in 969. They built Cairo, from which they ruled until 1171, when their caliphate was suppressed by Saladin.
The Assassins, or Nizaris, owe their origins to a Persian propagandist of the Fatimids named Hasan-i Sabbah (d. 1124), who in 1090 seized the fortress of Alamut in northern Persia. From there he began a program of Fatimid propaganda and political assassination. In 1094 the Fatimid caliph, al-Mustansir, died; he had nominated his eldest son, Nizar (d. 1095), to succeed him, but the palace administration ousted and murdered Nizar in favor of his more pliable brother al-Musta‘li (1094-1101). Hasan-i Sabbah and his followers had sided with Nizar and became independent from the main Fatimid administration. During the years that followed, the Assassins established a hierarchical sect and continued to expand their sphere of influence, taking several fortresses in Persia and Syria. After 1162 the masters of the Persian Assassins claimed to be descendants of Nizar and hence the rightful imams, a claim that they generally maintained until their Persian strongholds were destroyed by the Mongols in 1256. The Syrian Assassins survived slightly longer, the last of their fortresses falling to Baybars I, the Mamluk sultan, in 1273.
In addition to the belief in the doctrine of the imams, Shi‘ite doctrine and practices show a number of other differences from those of Sunni Muslims. In their interpretation of the hadith (reports of the sayings and actions of the
Prophet and his companions, constituting a source of Islamic law), they give greater importance to accounts attributed to ‘Ali and his family; they reject the use of consensus in their interpretation of the law but give reason a greater role in their theology; not surprisingly, they place greater emphasis on the teachings of the imams, as passed down through the jurisprudents; and most importantly for the period of the crusades, for the Shi‘ite groups that believe in a hidden imam, the offensive jihad (holy war) is considered to be suspended, as only the imam may lead it.
-Niall Christie
Bibliography
Daftary, Farhad, The Isma'ilis: Their History and Doctrines (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
-, “The Isma‘ilis and the Crusaders: History and Myth,”
In The Crusades and the Military Orders: Expanding the Frontiers of Medieval Latin Christianity, ed. Zsolt Hunyadi and Jozsef Laszlovszky (Budapest: Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, 2001), pp. 21-42.
Halm, Heinz, Shiism (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991).
Jafri, S. Husain M., Origins and Early Development of Shi‘a Islam (London: Longman, 1979).
Momen, Moojan, An Introduction to Shi'ism: The History and Doctrines of Twelver Shi'ism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985).
Rippin, Andrew, Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, 2d ed. (London: Routledge, 2001).
World History
