The Sunni-Shia schism of Islam

In a recent National Interest column, Shekhar Gupta quoted an interesting statistic:

“Almost all the million-plus Muslims killed across the Muslim world in the past decade have been killed by fellow Muslims, barring about 5,000 to 7,000 each (if that many) by the Americans and the Russians (acting for the Assad regime in Syria)”

Thanks to the Cold War, 9/11 and the Iraq invasion, the US (and its ally Israel) has oft been painted as the key enemy of the Islamic world. But its pertinent to remember that Islamic societies have always had their deep fissures. One key fissure has been that between Sunnis and Shias. And a lot of blood has been shed due to this.

The primary reason for Sunni-Shia schism was based on the question of who the legitimate successors of the Prophet were. After the Prophet’s death, his friend and confidant Abu Bakr (and father-in-law through the Prophet’s marriage to Aisha) was anointed as the Caliph. This was even though Ali, his cousin and son-in-law (through Ali’s marriage to the Prophet’s daughter Fatima) and a bloodline, was seen by many (the Shias) as the legitimate heir of the Prophet. Abu Bakr’s wife Aisha too played a critical role in ensuring the leadership passed on to her husband.  

Abu Bakr was succeeded by Usman and Uthman in quick succession. After Uthman’s assassination, Ali was anointed as the Caliph only to also be assassinated. The reign of these four caliphs, known as the Rashidun Caliphate spanned just 29 years from the death of the Prophet.

Ali’s son Hussain succeeds his father only to be assassinated by the Ummayud Caliphate (Yazid) in the Battle of Karbala. Hussain’s martyrdom marks the decisive split between the Sunnis and Shias. The Sunnis believe in the Rashidun caliphate and the successors of Uthman. The Shias on the other hand, believe that none of the Caliphs other than Ali and his successors had a legitimate right to rule. For them, Ali was the first Imam and his successors held the political and divine right to rule. Muharram is the day the Shias commemorate and mourn the martyrdom of Hussain.

Abusing the first three Caliphs and Aisha was one form of Shiite piety in the following centuries. While the Sunnis dominated due to the expansion of the Ottoman empire, the Safavid empire of Iran (which emerged and survived almost during the same period of the Mughals in India) established Shiism as their state religion.

Within Shiism, three major strands emerged:

• The Twelver Shias: For the Twelver Shias, belief in the line of twelve imams beginning from Ali is supreme. However, as the twelfth Imam went missing in the ninth century, they interpret this absence as mystical occultism and are confident that he’ll one day emerge as the ‘Mahidi’
• Zayidis: They believe the first five imams and their fifth imam is not the same as the fifth imam of the Twelvers. The Zayidis are mostly confined to Yemen these days.
• Ismailis : They are also known as the Sevener Shiites as their beliefs diverge from the  Twelvers from a lack of agreement on who the seventh imam was. The Agha Khan is their current spiritual head.

From an Indian perspective, the more fascinating bit of this history is the emergence of the Shiite kingdoms in the Deccan and Awadh as an interplay between the Safavids, the Mughals and the maritime powers such as the East India company. I’ll write about that period soon.

This map of the Sunni-Shia distribution in the Middle East is worth a look: