Islamic world
The historicists came to be known as Sunnis and their main opponents as Shīʿites. These labels are somewhat misleading because they imply that only the Sunnis tried to follow the Sunnah of Muhammad. In fact, each group relied on the Sunnah but emphasized different elements. For the Sunnis, who should more properly be called the Jamāʿī-Sunnis, the principle of solidarity was essential to the Sunnah. The Shīʿites argued that the fundamental element of the Sunnah, and one willfully overlooked by the Jamāʿī-Sunnis, was Muhammad’s devotion to his family and his wish that they succeed him through ʿAlī. These new labels expressed and consolidated the social reorganization that had been under way since the beginning of the conquests. The vast majority of Muslims now became consensus-oriented, while a small minority became oppositional. The inherent inimitability of Muhammad’s role had made it impossible for any form of successorship to capture universal approval. When the ʿAbbāsids denied the special claims of the family of ʿAlī, they prompted the Shīʿites to define themselves as a permanent opposition to the status quo. The crystallization of Shīʿism into a movement of protest received its greatest impetus during and just ... (200 of 42,426 words)Sunnis and Shīʿites