For example...

For example, Shaykh al-Mufid regards all the who have pledged allegiance to ‘Ali ( ‘a ) in Medina especially those who accompanied him in the battles as among the Shi‘ah and those who believed in his Imamate { imamah }.

In the Battle of Jamal (Camel), one thousand five hundred were present.[^6] It is thus recorded in Rijal Kashi : Among the pioneering who traversed the path of truth and believed in the Imamate of the Commander of the Faithful ‘Ali ( ‘a ) are the following: Abu’l-Haytham ibn Tayyihan; Abu Ayyub; Khuzaymah ibn Thabit; Jabir ibn ‘Abd Allah; Zayd ibn al-Arqam; Abu Sa‘id Sahl ibn Hunayf; Bara’ ibn Malik; ‘Uthman ibn Hunayf; ‘Ubadah ibn Samit, and after them are Qays ibn Sa‘d; ‘Udayy ibn Hatam; ‘Amru ibn Hamq; ‘Umran ibn Hasin; Buraydah Aslami; and others who are described as “ basharun kathir ” {many people}.[^7] In the marginal note of Rijal Kashi on the definition and explanation of the term “ basarun kathir ”, the late Mirdamad says: “It means many people from among the prominent and leading Followers { tabi‘un }.”[^8] Sayyid Muhsin Amin has also said: Be aware that many of the believed in the Imamate of the Commander of the Faithful ( ‘a ) to count them is not possible for us to do and the narrators of traditions have consensus of opinion that most of the accompanied and sided with the Commander of the Faithful ( ‘a ) in the battles.[^9] In one of his letters to Mu‘awiyah, Muhammad ibn Abubakr identifies the presence of the of the Prophet (S) at the side of ‘Ali ( ‘a ) as one of the signs of his rightfulness.[^10] Muhammad ibn Abi Hudhayfah, a loyal supporter of ‘Ali ( ‘a ) who was a maternal cousin of Mu‘awiyah, and owing to his friendship with ‘Ali ( ‘a ), languished in the prison cell of Mu‘awiyah and finally died there, thus addressed Mu‘awiyah in one of their conversation: From the moment I have known you, whether during the pre-Islamic period of ignorance { yawm al-jahiliyyah } or during the advent of Islam, you have never changed and Islam has not been added to you.

And one of the manifestations of this fact is that you are condemning me for loving ‘Ali notwithstanding the fact that all the ascetics and devoted worshippers of the Muhajirun and Ansar are in his company while in your company are perverts and hypocrites.[^11] Of course, not all of those who were enlisted in the army of the Commander of the Faithful ( ‘a ) can be considered Shi‘ah. But since he ( ‘a )…