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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books History of Shi'ism: From the Advent of Islam up to the End of Minor Occultation Lesson 5: The Other Terms for the “Shi‘ah” After the caliphate of the Commander of the Faithful ‘Ali ( ‘a ) and with the spread of Shi‘ism, in addition to the name “Shi‘ah”, other appellations such as ‘Alawi, Imamah, Husayniyyah, ‘Ithna ‘Ashari, Khassah, Ja‘fari, Turabi, and Rafidhi were gradually applied to the friends of the family of the Prophet (S).

Although the ’s ( ‘a ) adherents as a whole were called “Shi‘ah” as usual, these appellations and titles were also applied to the Shi‘ah on various occasions. Sometimes, the enemies also used to give certain titles to the Shi‘ah with the aim of belittling and degrading them.

During the time of Mu‘awiyah, for example, the Banu Umayyah and the people of Sham[^1] used the epithet “Abu Turab” {literally, “Father of the Earth/Soil”} for ‘Ali ( ‘a ) among all his epithets and sobriquets and they used to call his Shi‘ah as “ Turabis ”.

After the Battle of Siffin and the rule of ‘Ali ( ‘a ), whenever Mu‘awiyah wanted to dispatch ‘Abd Allah ibn Hadhrami to Basrah, he would give instructions regarding the tribes but concerning the tribe of Rabi‘ah, he said: “Leave alone the Rabi‘ah as all of them are turabi s.”[^2] According to Mas‘udi, Abu Mikhnaf had a book entitled, Akhbar at-Turabiyyin , from which he has narrated the event of ‘Ayn al-Warad.[^3] The enemies of the Shi‘ah used to apply to them the label, “Rafidhi” and in most cases, whenever they liked to accuse somebody of abandoning religion, they would brand him a rafidhi , just as ash-Shafi‘i says: إن كان رفضاً حبّ آل محمّد فليشهد الثّقلان أنّى رافضى If loving the progeny {al} of Muhammad is rafdh, the two worlds (of mankind and jinn) shall therefore be the witness that I am indeed a rafidhi.

[^4] It has been recorded in history that after the uprising of Zayd ibn ‘Ali, the Shi‘ah were then called Rafidhi . Shahristani thus says: When the Shi‘ah of Kufah learned from Zayd ibn ‘Ali that he does not declare disavowal against the two sheikhs { shaykhayn } (Abubakr and ‘Umar) and regard as permissible the Imamate of a deserving one { mafdhul } in the existence of the most deserving one { afdhal }, they abandoned him.