West Morris Central High School
Department of History and Social Sciences
Sunni and Shiite Islam
From: Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire.
All Muslims practice either Sunni or Shia Islam. Approximately 85 percent of the world's Muslims are
Sunni and the rest are Shiis. The origins of the two sects lie in the early division over who would lead the
community after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632. Some felt that it should be Ali, the
Prophet's cousin and son-in-law and the father of his only surviving grandchildren. But the majority
chose Abu Bakr as the Prophet's successor or caliph. Abu Bakr was an early convert to Islam, a close
confidant of the Prophet, and his father-in-law. He was also much older than Ali and the majority of the
community felt that his maturity would be necessary to help steer the new community after the
unexpected death of the Prophet. The rift caused by this decision was not healed, however, and when a
group of disgruntled soldiers murdered the third caliph, Uthman, in 656, the rift opened into civil war.
Following these hostilities, the majority of the community chose Ali as caliph but Uthman's kinsmen, the
clan of the Banu Umayya (Umayyads), rejected Ali's leadership as they said his hands were stained with
Uthman's blood.
The two sides prepared for battle in 661 but Ali, who did not want to plunge the community into further
violence, agreed to arbitration of the dispute. A splinter group of his supporters, angry at his attempt at
compromise, assassinated Ali in the same year and civil war ensued. In 680 the forces of the Banu
Umayya slaughtered Ali's son Husayn at Karbala, in present-day Iraq. This action created the historical
basis for the cleavage of the two sects of Islam, the Shia maintaining that the caliphate rightly belonged
to Ali's descendants while the Sunnis accepted the leadership of the Banu Umayya, under Caliph Yazid
(d. 683) and later the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258).
The name Sunni derives from the phrase ahl al-sunna, which refers to the people who follow the
righteous path established by the Prophet Muhammad. In truth, there is very little doctrinal difference
between the Sunni and the Shia. But over time, the Shia developed a hierarchy in the ranks of their
clergy that was noticeably absent in the Sunni tradition until the Ottoman Empire. They also believed in
the eventual return of the "hidden imam," the 12th imam who vanished in the ninth century but whose
return will bring a reign of absolute justice. In contrast, the Sunnis emphasized the legal training of their
clerics, creating a system wherein the quality of training and scholarship determined prestige. There was
no single religious authority that all Sunni clergy were compelled to obey. While the Shia rejected the
political authority of the caliphs after Ali, the Sunni clergy worked within the system as the caliph's
advisers. This compromise was fully articulated during the Abbasid Caliphate when the caliphs agreed to
let the Sunni clergy administer the law of their state in return for the clergy's acknowledgement of the
caliphs' sovereignty over political affairs.