The Origins of the Sunni-Shiite Dispute
The death of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad was followed by a bitter succession dispute. On the one hand were those who believed that leadership of the Islamic community should be confined to Muhammad’s family and bloodline. On the other, were those who thought that leadership should be open to whomever the Muslim community chose. The former were a minority, and they coalesced around Muhammad’s cousin and son in law Ali. They became known as the Shiites, or faction, of Ali. The latter, the majority, became known as the Sunnis.
The factions’ dispute, while heated, could well have ended within a generation or two after the participants shuffled off the mortal coil. However, an assassination superheated the controversy, and led to a lasting and at times violent division that rifts Islam to this day. Muslims elected the first three Caliphs, or successors of the Prophet, from outside Muhammad’s family, bypassing Ali each time. Finally, after the assassination of the third Caliph, Ali was elected. However, his predecessor’s relatives alleged that Ali was implicated in the assassination, and engineered the election of a rival Caliph, Muawiyah I.