A study on Caliphate and Shi̇'a: VII.-VIII. yy.

A process of the first three hundred years of the Islam being characterized as the formation period of the Islamic thought is of great importance so that the sects showing us their faces as a result of the differentiations on the understandings of the religion can be understood healthfully. The events starting just after the death of the Prophet Muhammed and usually taking place about the imamate/caliphate have caused serious conflicts among the Moslems. There is no doubt that the thoughts burst out by these conflicts having a political character at the beginning have showed us their faces as sects within the historical period. These religious-political formations that we can classify as the Kharijite, the Shi'a, Murcia and Mutezile at first have formed a cultural structure belonging to themselves later on. These sects expressing themselves under certain principles have continued to form their sub-groups mostly because of the political attitude differentiations. One of the sects having an important place within the history of the Islamic thought and politics is the Shi'a sect. There are a lot of rumours about the start and origin of the events providing the existance of the Shi'a. There are disagreements on that issue among the Islam and Shi'a scholars. In addition to the abudance of the conflicts originated from the variety of the view-points and thoughts of the Sunneh and Shi'a scholars, the uncertainty of the historical events and the voicing of the make-up hadith and narratives in the name of proving a certain thought is the leading reason increasing the confusion on thst issue. Eventhough some of the Shi'a authors try to take the existance of Shi'a back to the period when Prophet Muhammed was alive, it has existed with the apperance of the Shi'a as the advocacy of Ali at an early period, with the events starting with the martyrization of Osman and with the occurance of the wars outbreaking with the assertion of that factor during Ali's period. However, the Shi'a at that period is in the form of supportance. Later, the thought of the Shi'a imamate has appeared much more with the martyrization of Hussein and the events happened afterterwards. The Shi'a's forming a political and theological sect and being a different party within the Islamic society go back to the end of the first hijri age. Since that date, the Shi'a has become a theological sect basing on its political basis. Key Words: The Shi'a, Imamate-Caliphate, Zeydiyye