# Shia Islam · The Canon · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/canon/shia-islam/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · the Atlas · language: en The same words a person sees on this page, nothing more and nothing hidden. Our own words are free to use under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), naming the Congregation of Tomorrow. Words of others keep their own terms. Every page of the site, listed: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/ai/pages.json · the whole site in one file: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/llms-full.txt ← The Canon: all 125 The Canon · No. 047 Shia Islam Shi'at Ali, the party of Ali; Twelver Shiism 632 CE – present · Abrahamic · Living · Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Lebanon, Pakistan, India, Yemen V. THE MEDIEVAL WORLD — c.500 – 1500 CE ### How many ### Who began it ### What it is for ### What it worships ### What it holds ### What it does ### After death ### Its texts ### Its branches ### Of note ### Its timeline - 632 CE Abu Bakr is chosen; Ali's supporters regard this as a usurpation. - 656–661 CE Ali's caliphate, ending in his assassination at Kufa. - 680 CE Karbala. Husayn and about seventy followers are killed by Umayyad forces. The event fixes Shia identity permanently around martyrdom and injustice. - 765 CE Death of Ja'far al-Sadiq, the sixth Imam and the founder of Shia jurisprudence; the Ismaili branch separates over his succession. - 874 CE The twelfth Imam disappears; the Lesser Occultation begins. - 941 CE The Greater Occultation; the Imam is no longer contactable through deputies, and the community must govern itself in his absence — the theological problem that everything afterwards turns on. - 1501 CE Shah Ismail imposes Twelver Shiism on Persia; Iran's Shia identity dates from this, not from antiquity. - 1970s CE Khomeini develops wilayat al-faqih, guardianship of the jurist — the claim that clerics should govern directly in the Imam's absence, which is an innovation and is rejected by many senior Shia clerics, notably the quietist school at Najaf. - 1979 CE Iranian Revolution. - 1980–88, 2003–present Iran-Iraq war; post-2003 sectarian conflict in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. ### Sources Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source. The Atlas The Door