List of extinct Shia sects

The following is a list of extinct unorthodox movements within Shia Islam. These are movements that no longer have any living followers or practitioners. These movements were created around certain beliefs that were unorthodox and not held by the mainstream Shia Muslims. These movements eventually, after their very brief existence, had their followers fall into mainstream Islam.

Ghulat sects

  • Bazighiyya– who believed that Ja'far al-Sadiq was God.
  • Dhammiyya– who believed that Ali was God and Muhammad was his appointed Messenger and Prophet.
  • Ghurabiyya– who believed the angel Gabriel was mistaken.
  • Hurufiyya– who believed God is incarnated in every atom, reminiscent of the Alevi-Bektashism.
    • Nuqtavi– who believed in a cyclical view of time, reminiscent of the Isma'ili Shia.
  • Kaysanites– who believed in the Imamate of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah after the death of Husayn Ibn 'Ali Ibn abu Talib.
  • Mughiriyya– who were influenced by Mandean and Manichean doctrines and were founded by the first Shi'i gnostic al-Mughira, who claimed that God is a man of light with a crown of light on his head resembling Mandean doctrine of deity referred to as "king of light". Al-Mughira further added that God has limbs corresponding to the letters of Arabic alphabet reminiscent of the teaching of Marcus the Gnostic.[4]: 72 
  • Rawendis– who believed in the transmigration of souls. They asserted that the spirit that was in Jesus was in Ali, and the spirit of Adam was in Othman ibn Nahik.
  • Soldiers of Heaven– who believed that their former leader Dia Abdul Zahra Kadim (died 2007 CE) was the Mahdi and reincarnation of Ali ibn Abi Talib.
  • Ya’furiyya– who believed in reincarnation and that a man named Mu’ammar al-Kufi was their Lord.

Zaydi Shia sects

  • Mutrafya – A Hamdani-based sect of the Zaydi Shia led Mutraf bin Shihab that start gaining followers in Yemen after the fall of the Ismaili Zurayids, they were weakened by Sunni Ayyubids & later famously exterminated as heretics by the Zaydi imam Al-Mansur Abdallah for calling for backing a Hamdani imam
  • Dukayniyya– who believed Muhammad's followers fell into unbelief after his death because they did not uphold the Imamate of Ali.
  • Khalafiyya– who believed in a unique line of Imams after Zayd ibn Ali ibn Husayn Ibn 'Ali Ibn abu Talib, starting with a man named Abd al-Samad and continuing with his descendants.
  • Khashabiyya– who believed that the Imamate must remain only among the descendants of Hasan and Husayn, even if that Imam is ignorant, immoral and tyrannical.
  • Tabiriyya/Butriyya/Salihiyya– who believed the companions, including Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman, had been in error in failing to follow Ali, but it did not amount to sin.

Imami/pre-Twelver Shia sects

Ismā'īlī Shia sects

  • Hafizi– who believed the Caliph of the Fatimid Caliphate, Al Hafiz and his descendants were also the Imam of the Time.
  • Seveners–believed that Isma'il ibn Jafar was the seventh and the last Imam (hereditary leader of the Muslim community in the direct line of Ali). They believed his son, Muhammad ibn Isma'il, would return and bring about an age of justice as Mahdi.
  • Qarmatians– a sect of Seveners who believed in a world view where every phenomenon repeated itself in cycles, where every incident was replayed over and over again.

See also

References

  1. ^ al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsá Nawbakhtī (2007). Abbas K. Kadhim (ed.). Shi'a Sects: (Kitab Firaq Al-Shi'a). London: ICAS Press. p. 83. ISBN 9781904063261.
  2. ^ a b Daftary, Farhad (1990). Cambridge University (ed.). The Isma'ilis: Their History and Doctrines. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 63. ISBN 9780521429740.
  3. ^ Momen, Moojan (1985). Yale University (ed.). An Introduction to Shiʻi Islam: The History and Doctrines of Twelver Shiʻism. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 51. ISBN 0300035314.
  4. ^ Daftary, Farhad (1990). Cambridge University (ed.). The Isma'ilis: Their History and Doctrines. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 72. ISBN 9780521429740.

Further reading

  • Madelung, Wilferd; Walker, Paul Ernest (1997). An Ismaili heresiography: the "Bāb Al-shayṭān" from Abū Tammām's Kitāb Al-shajara. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-11072-4.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_extinct_Shia_sects&oldid=1200540505"