Ali and the Split of the Umma

SSWH5 The student will trace the origins and expansion of the Islamic World between 600 CE and 1300 CE.

c. Explain the reasons for the split between Sunni and Shia Muslims.


The early community of Islam, known as the Umma, was a clannish society that valued loyalty to extended family units. Ali had married Muhammad's daughter Fatima and was thus considered part of the Banu Hashim family, linking closely to the Prophet himself.

When Muhammad died in 632, the Umma selected Abu Bakr to replace him caliph. This angered Ali, but he remained loyal to Abu Bakr. When Abu Bakr died two years later, Ali was again passed over for Umar. Umar's death in 644 marked the third time Ali was passed over for the caliphate, which was given to Uthman.

The process of deciding who would become caliph was largely controlled by the powerful Umayyad clan, which Muhammad had married into. Because they passed over Ali three times, Ali had finally set himself against the Umayyad as their enemy. In 656, Uthman was assissinated, and historians have speculated that Ali had a hand in his death. Though this was never proven, Ali did finally succeed to take the title of caliph, though his five year reign would be laced with political discord and civil war. Ali fell to an assassin in 661, and his followers rebelled against the Umayyad clan. They called themselves the faction of Ali, and because the word faction in Arabic translates as Shiite, his followers became known simply as the Shiites. Those Muslims who followed the Umayyad rulers would come to be known as Sunnis, or followers of the accepted way.

Ali's death fractured the Umma into two camps, the Sunni and the Shiite. The split would have ramifications for the development of Islam and affects our world even today.