A History of Islamic Societies

Alongside Sunni communities, the Shiʿis developed their own expressions of Islam. In one Shiʿi view, the source of true belief in each generation was ultimately not the text of tradition, nor the consensus of jurists, nor the piety of holy men, but loyalty to the Caliph ʿAli and his descendants. The true imamate or caliphate belonged in the family of the Prophet, the Hashimite clan. In the seventh and eighth centuries, this led to a number of political movements opposing the Umayyad and ʿAbbasid dynasties. Family loyalists tried again and again to seize the caliphate. (See Figure 4.)

Defeat channeled many Shiʿis from political activity into religious reflection. The defeat of the Kufan uprising led by al-Mukhtar in 687 prompted a turn to gnosticism – the belief that human beings embody a divine spark and that they must return from this world to their true divine realm. Gnosticism generated a large number of Shiʿi sects that denied the resurrection and believed in incarnation, transmigration of souls, and continuous living prophethood. Collectively these were called extremist sects (ghulat).