Thus far we have dealt with the main body of Muslims, the Sunnīs, or traditionalists. Local and school differences may exist among them with no impairment to their basic conviction that they form one religious community.

However, there exist also among the "People of the Qibla" (those who turn toward Mecca) dissident sects who feel that they are set apart from all other Muslims, and who regard the Sunnīs as heretics, or even infidels.

To understand these sects, it is necessary to return to the early days of Islam. The second Caliph, ‘Umar, was struck down in the Mosque by a Persian slave bent on avenging the conquest of his people (A.D. 644). The six most distinguished Companions of the Prophet then met to elect one of themselves Caliph. The choice narrowed to ‘Alī, the Prophet's cousin, husband of his daughter and father of his grandchildren; and to ‘Uthmān, an early convert from the clan of Umayya, the aristocratic Qurayshī family which had led the opposition to the Prophet in Mecca. ‘Uthmān had also married a daughter of the Prophet. The other four finally decided upon ‘Uthmān, and ‘Alī's friends bitterly denounced the "conspiracy" to withhold allegiance from the Prophet's own family.

‘Uthmān was personally pious, but it was felt that his family, the Umawis, had entirely too much influence with him. He gave them high posts, and seemed unwilling to notice their corrupt dealings. He lived more luxuriously

Mu‘āwiya became Caliph, and the House of Umayya ruled for ninety years. The Khārijīs and the Faction of ‘Alī, the Shī‘a, led unsuccessful religious revolts, and even in the remainder of the community dissatisfaction with the Umawīs grew. In A.D. 750 a general revolution by all elements for "an Imām of the Prophet's family" toppled the Umawīs, but it was the descendants of the Prophet's uncle ‘Abbās who had secretly engineered the revolution and who now seized the power. The Shī‘a continued their opposition, and subdivided repeatedly over the claims of ‘Alī's descendants, who became the nuclei of new Shī‘ī sects.