| Alids العلويين | |
|---|---|
| HashemiteArab Tribe | |
 A medallion bearing the name of Ali inscribed withIslamic calligraphy inHagia Sophia,Istanbul,Turkey. | |
| Ethnicity | Arabic descent |
| Nisba | al-Alawi |
| Location | Islamic world |
| Descended from | Ali |
| Parent tribe | Banu Hashim |
| Demonym | Alawis |
| Branches | |
| Language | originallyArabic, nowadays languages spread all over theIslamic world |
| Religion | Islam |
| Surnames | Al-Hashimi, Al-Alawi |
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Alids (Arabic:العلويين,romanized: al-ʿAlawiyyīn) are those who claim descent fromAli, the fourthRashidun caliph (r. 656–661), the firstimam inShia Islam. Ali was also thecousin andson-in-law of theIslamic prophetMuhammad.
The main branches are theHasanids andHusaynids, named afterHasan andHusayn, the eldest sons of Ali from his marriage toFatima, the daughter of Muhammad. As the progeny of Muhammad, they are revered by allMuslims. The Alids have led various movements inIslam, and a line of twelve Alids are the imams inTwelver Shia, the largest Shia branch.
In addition to seventeen daughters, various sources report that Ali had eleven or fourteen, or eighteen sons.[1] His first marriage was toFatima, daughter of theIslamic prophetMuhammad, who bore Ali three sons, namely,Hasan,Husayn, andMuhsin, though the last one is not mentioned in some sources.[1] Muhsin either died in infancy,[2] or was miscarried after Fatima was injured during araid on her house to arrest Ali, who had withheld his pledge of allegiance from the firstRashidun caliphAbu Bakr (r. 632–634).[3]
The first report appears in Sunni sources and the latter in Shia sources. Hasan and Husayn are recognized as the second and the thirdImams inShia Islam, their descendants being known as theHasanids and theHusaynids, respectively.[4] They are revered by allMuslims as the progeny of Muhammad and honored by nobility titles such asSharif andSayyid.[5]
Ali and Fatima had two daughters,Zaynab andUmm Kulthum.[6] After thedeath of Fatima in 632CE, Ali remarried and had more children. Among them, the lineage of Ali continued throughMuhammad ibn al-Hanafiya,Abbas ibn Ali, andUmar al-Atraf, their descendants were honored by the titleAlawi (lit. 'of Ali'). Respectively, they were born toKhawla al-Hanafiyya,Umm al-Banin, and Umm Habib bint Rabi'a (al-Sahba).[1]
Mu'awiya seized the rule after theassassination of Ali in 661 and founded theUmayyad Caliphate,[7] during which the Alids and their supporters were heavily persecuted.[6] After Ali, his followers (shi'a) recognized as theirimam his eldest son Hasan. After his death in 670, they turned to his brother Husayn, but he and his small caravan were massacred by the Umayyads in theBattle of Karbala in 680.[4] Soon followed the Shia uprising ofal-Mukhtar in 685 on behalf of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiya.[4] Many more Shia revolts followed afterward, led not only by the Alids but also by other kinsmen of Muhammad.[4][8]
The main movements in this period were the now-extinctKaysanites and the Imamites. Named after a commander of al-Mukhtar,[9] the Kaysanites energetically opposed the Umayyads and were led by various relatives of Muhammad. Their majority followedAbu Hashim, the son of Ibn al-Hanafiya. When Abu Hashim died around 716, this group followedMuhammad ibn Ali ibn Abd-Allah, the great-grandson of Muhammad's uncleAbbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib.[10]
The Kaysanite movement thus aligned itself with the Abbasids, that is, the descendants of Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib.[4][11] On the other hand, the Imamites were led by the quiescent descendants of Husayn through his only surviving son,Ali Zayn al-Abidin (d. 713), their fourth imam. His sonZayd ibn Ali was an exception for he led a failed uprising against the Umayyads around 740.[4] The followers of Zayd went on to form theZaydites, for whom any learned Hasanid or Husaynid who rose against tyranny was qualified as imam.[12]
To overthrow the Umayyads, the Abbasids had rallied the support of the Shia in the name of theAhl al-Bayt, that is, the family of Muhammad. But many Shias were disillusioned when the Abbasidal-Saffah (r. 750–754) declared himself caliph, as they had hoped for an Alid leader instead.[13] The Abbasids soon turned against their former allies and persecuted the Alids and their Shia supporters.[4][14]
In response, Shia doctrinally limited its leadership to the Alids, many of whom revolted against the Abbasids, including the Hasanid brothersMuhammad ibn Abd-Allah (d. 762) and Ibrahim.[1][1] Some Alids instead took refuge in remote areas and founded regional dynasties in the southern shores of theCaspian sea,Yemen, and westernMaghreb.[4][15]
For instance, the revolt of the HasanidHusayn ibn Ali al-Abid was suppressed in 786 but his brotherIdris (d. 791) escaped and founded thefirst Alid dynasty inMorocco.[1][14] Similarly, a number of Zaydite rules appeared in northernPersia and in Yemen, the latter of which has survived to the present day.[16][4]
Some quiescent imams of the Imamites were also probably killed by the Abbasids.[17] For example, their seventh imam,Musa al-Kazim (d. 799), spent years in the Abbasid prisons and died there, possibly poisoned by order of CaliphHarun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), who also had "hundreds of Alids" killed.[18] Caliphal-Ma'mun (r. 813–833) later attempted a reconciliation by appointing in 816 as his heirAli al-Rida, the eighth imam of the Imamites. Other Abbasids revolted in opposition inIraq, which forced al-Ma'mun to reverse his policies and Ali al-Rida died around that time, likely poisoned.[19][20]
Ali al-Hadi (d. 868) andHasan al-Askari (d. 874), the tenth and eleventh imams of the Imamites, were held in the capitalSamarra under strict surveillance.[21] Most Imamite sources report that both were poisoned by the Abbasids.[22] Their followers believe that the birth of their twelfth imam,Muhammad al-Mahdi, was hidden for fear of Abbasid persecution and that he remains in occultation by divine will since 874, until his reappearance at the end of time to eradicate injustice and evil.[23][24] They became known as theTwelvers.[25]
Meanwhile, the only historic split among the Imamites happened after the death in 765 of their sixth imam, the quiescentJa'far al-Sadiq,[4][25] who played a key role in formulating Imamite doctrines.[26] Some claimed that his designated successor was his sonIsma'il, who had actually predeceased al-Sadiq. These followers permanently separated and later formed theIsma'ilites.[4] Some of them denied the death of Isma'il but their majority accepted the imamate of his sonMuhammad ibn Isma'il.[27]
Muhammad ibn Isma'il's death around 795 was denied by the majority of his followers, who awaited his return as the Mahdi, while a minority traced the imamate in his descendants.[27] The Isma'ilites actively opposed the Abbasids,[28] and their efforts culminated in the establishment of theFatimid Caliphate (r. 909–1171) inNorth Africa,[4] although some have questioned the Isma'ilite ancestry of the Fatimid caliphs.[1]
The abortiveZanj rebellion against the Abbasids was ignited in Iraq andBahrain in the mid-ninth century by Ali ibn Muhammad Sahib al-Zanj, who claimed descent from Abbas ibn Ali. The poetry by descendants of Abbas ibn Ali is collected inal-Awraq, compiled by theTurkic scholaral-Suli (d. 946–947). One of his descendants was Abbas ibn al-Hasan al-Alawi, who reached fame as a poet and scholar during the reigns of Harun al-Rashid and al-Ma'mun.[29]
Several dynasties have claimed descent from Ali, often through his son Hasan. The Hasanid dynasties include theIdrisites and Sharifs of Maghreb in North Africa, andHammudids inAndalusia, located in modern-daySpain.[4] The Fatimid Caliphate claimed a Husaynid descent.[1]
