The problem of classification of Shiīte sects in the works in Sunnī makalāt style of the first period

The works in Makālāt style are of the important sources referred in the researches done in the field of History of Islamic Sects. We attempt to set our study, which deals how the Shiīte sects are perceived in Sunnī works, basing on the works such as Makālāt al-Islāmiyyīn of Abū al-Hasen Ali b. Ismā'īl b. Ebī Bishr Ishāq b. Sālim al-Ash'ārī al-Basrī (d.324/935-36), and al-Tanbīh wa al-Radd of Abū al-Husayn Mohammed b. Ahmad b. Abd al-Rahmān al-Malatī al-Tarāifī al-Asqalānī (d.377/987), and al-Tabsīr fī al-Dīn of Abu Ishaq Ruqn al-Dīn Abraham b. Mohammed b. Abraham al-Isfarāyinī (d.418/1027), and al-Farq bayn al-Firaq of Abū Mansūr abd al-Qāhir b. Tāhir b. Mohammed al-Tamīmī al-Baghdādī (d.429/1037-38), and al-Milal wa al-Nihal of Abū al-Fath Tāj al-Dīn (Lisān al-Dīn) Mohammed b. Abd al-Qarīm b. Ahmad al-Shahristānī (d.548/1153), which have important and are of great value from the viewpoint of History of Islamic Sects. They have a great important role in understanding and explaining of the sects emerged in Islamic history by terms of whether their methods or style and purpose of writing. Our study is composed of three sections. In the first section, we mention the works in makālāt style, their importance, and meaning and content of some concepts used by Shiīte sects, and also we attempt to give information about the Hadith of 'seventy three sects', which occupies an importance place in the field of History of Islamic Sects. Besides, we mention the first representatives and their works of Sunnī makālāt tradition, and appearance and formation of Shiīte. The second section includes the classification of the Shiīte sects in the works having importance in writing of Sunnī Makālāt, and views of the Shiīte sects in each works in issue. In the third and the last section, we present the methods followed in classification of the works in makālāt style, the basic approaches to classificiation of Shiīte sects, the principles taken as the base in the classification, analysing of the criticisms directed to Shiism. Also, in the last section, we give place to numerical classification of the Shiīte sects and comparative analysing of the Shiīte sects in the related works. Keywords: Seventy three firqah, Makālāt, firqah, Shiīte, Sunnī.