Sunni, member of one of the two major branches ofIslam, the branch that consists of the majority of thatreligion’s adherents. Sunni Muslims regard theirdenomination as the mainstream and traditionalist branch of Islam—as distinguished from the minority denomination, theShiʿah.

The Sunnis recognize the first fourcaliphs as the ProphetMuhammad’s rightful successors, whereas the Shiʿah believe that Muslim leadership belonged to Muhammad’s son-in-law,ʿAlī, and his descendants alone. In contrast to the Shiʿah, the Sunnis have long conceived of the polity established by Muhammad atMedina as an earthly, temporal dominion and have thus regarded the leadership of Islam as being determined not by divine order or inspiration but by the prevailing political realities of theMuslim world. This led historically to Sunni acceptance of the leadership of the foremost families ofMecca and to the acceptance of unexceptional and even foreign caliphs, so long as their rule afforded the proper exercise of religion and the maintenance of order. A majority of Sunni jurists accordingly came toarticulate the position that thecaliph must be a member of Muhammad’s tribe, theQuraysh, but devised a theory of election that was flexible enough to permit thatallegiance be given to thede facto caliph, whatever his origins. The distinctions between the Sunnis and other groups regarding the holding of spiritual and political authority remained firm even after thecaliphate ceased to exist as an effective political institution in the 13th century.

Sunni orthodoxy is marked by an emphasis on the views and customs of the majority of thecommunity, as distinguished from the views ofperipheral groups. The institution ofconsensus (ijmāʿ) evolved by the Sunnis allowed them to incorporate various customs and usages that arose through ordinary historical development but that nevertheless had no roots in theQurʾān.

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Islam

The Sunnis recognize the six “sound” books ofHadith, which contain the spoken tradition attributed to Muhammad. The Sunnis also accept as orthodox four schools ofIslamic law:Ḥanafī,Ḥanbalī,Mālikī, andShāfiʿī. In the early 21st century the Sunnisconstituted the majority of Muslims in all countries except Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, and perhaps Lebanon. They numbered about 900 million in the early 21st century and constituted a majority of all the adherents of Islam.