Chapter 4 provides an overview of the history and development of the Shiʿites. It defines the Shiʿa as those who elevate devotion and personal allegiance to the Prophet and his family as the most crucial element and sign of submission to God. This distinguishes Shiʿism from what is called ʿAlīd loyalism, which is devotion to the Prophet and his family that is widespread among Muslims. After reviewing the issues that led to the formation of the Shiʿites, the chapter traces the militant ghulāt movements of the early period, the Zaydīs and the Alevi and ʿAlawī movements. It then moves to consider the quietist Shiʿa, discussing the Imāmī movement before moving on to the groups that splintered off from it: both the “Twelver” (Ithnā-ʿAsharī) and Ismāʿīlī Shiʿite movements.

The concluding chapter reconsiders certain important assumptions about anti-ʿAlid sentiment; namely, that it was limited to the early Umayyads andKhawārij, and that it played no role in shaping Sunnī theology. Instead, this literary excavation reveals strong indications of an enduring legacy that continued to shape medieval and contemporary Sunnī views about ʿAlī. This chapter also discusses the methods that Sunnīs used to transform ʿAlī from a villainous character to a righteous one. It compares canonical ḥadīth with parallel recensions in other works to argue that Sunnī writers actively engaged in the process of rehabilitating ʿAlī by censoring, reinterpreting, and emending texts that portrayed him negatively and by circulating counterclaims that exalted him. Scholars also selectively appropriated anti-ʿAlid reports to modulate ʿAlī’s image. They tempered the pro-ʿAlid (and Shīʿī) portrayal of ʿAlī as an impeccable saint through reports which portrayed him as sinful or frequently mistaken. On the whole, we can consider Sunnī efforts to construct an image of ʿAlī that differed from both Shīʿī and anti-ʿAlid views to have been successful.

Chapter 1 identifies the phenomenon of anti-ʿAlid sentiment in its varied expressions in early Muslim political and intellectual history. The chapter also provides a framework for researchers to locate and contextualize anti-ʿAlid doctrines that appear in later Sunnī and Ibāḍī historiography. It identifies six distinct positions on ʿAlī held by Muslims and arranges these doctrines on a spectrum from the ardently pro-ʿAlid to the radically anti-ʿAlid to enable readers to interpret literary depictions of ʿAlī and situate authors who engaged in theological discussions about ʿAlī across sectarian boundaries and multiple centuries.

This chapter introduces the themes and tensions related to historiography on Islam’s fourth caliph, ʿAlī. Anti-ʿAlids (nawāṣib) were Muslims who disliked ʿAlī and his descendants, while ʿAlī's partisans, pro-ʿAlids and Shīʿīs, exalted him and developed doctrines about the nature of his authority. All of these early Muslims transmitted reports about ʿAlī's character, which resulted in portrayals that were diverse and contradictory. Sunnī and Shīʿī writers sifted through such reports not only to construct an image of ʿAlī that they considered authentic, but also to validate their own communal identities and conceptions of religion.