Disclaimer: I am no expert in the subject and idea is to share a point of view. Any errors & omissions will be graciously accepted and updated swiftly

If you want to read up Part 1, I wrote about the Aryan-Dravidian divide sometime back and here is the link if you would like to see that.

The world is divided in so many aspects race, religion, region, countries and many more. There is one such divide that I have been trying to get handle on and it is Shia Sunni in Islam that has been there for more than a millennia and is somewhat difficult to comprehend by someone who is not close Islamic history.

Recently I was listening to a NPR Podcast Throughline and in an episode called War of the Worlds which explains Sunni Shia divide in very comprehensible way. The hosts Ramtin Arablouei (Iranian & Shia) and Rund Abdelfatah (Palestinian & Sunni). This writeup is inspired by their podcast. Full credits to both these hosts to bring such clarity. I would take the similar approach as the Podcast and divide this history of 1400 years in five stages

The Battle of Karbala

This story starts when Prophet Mohammed was at the deathbed at the age of 62 in the 7th Century. He was the last messenger and prophet sent by god to guide humanity . He was also the political leader and united the whole of Arabia. Prophet was suffering from something like bacterial meningitis and it took ten days for death to overcome. One thought that everyone had including Prophet was, who is going to succeed him politically. There was a dilemma, should the new leader selected by the vote or should a family member inherit the role. This created factions in the society and tensions between the factions started growing. There was lot of power at stake and who becomes the Caliph “Ruler” was becoming a real problem. (Kingdom is called Calipahte)

So the Prophet’s cousin whose name is Ali has a bunch of followers who wanted him to be the Caliph. Though the people who wanted to vote in a Caliph went ahead and establish someone else as Caliph. So there were three other people before Ali gets a chance to become the Caliph. Ali does become a Caliph but he is assassinated pretty quickly into his rule which crushes the hopes of all his followers who were called “Shiat-al-Ali” or “Shia”.

A new guy called Mu’awiyah became Caliph who was all about power and ruthless rule. Unlike Ali who was considered just and able ruler. Under this rule Shias were not treated well and who lived in the present day Iraq. Under Ali, Iraq was center of the Islamic rule and there was lot at stake.

After Mu’awiyah’s death, his son Yazid becomes the next Caliph who is known to be more ruthless than his father and this sets the scene for the battle that changes the path of Islam forever.

A group of Shias in Iraq were frustrated by Yazid’s rule and hence they called on Prophet Mohammed’s grandson, Ali son Hussein to rescue them from this rule. Hussein was the leader of the Shia after Ali. He had to travel all the way from Arabia to Iraq in order to rescue them. There was only small group who were mostly descendants of Prophet Mohammed, Shias on one side whereas a huge Sunni army (4000 strong) on the other side. The odds were on the Yazid’s side and Hussein was well aware of that.

And during the three weeks of travel, Hussein got lots of warning but he continued travel to his own definite death. Hussein asked his men to go back but all of them stayed and the war that lasted 10 days and on the final day Hussein and his 72 men were capitulated. All women and children were not killed and sent to Damascus. And this makes Hussein a legendary martyr and fuels the Shia movement all around the world and with this the battle of Karbala ends. This battle was fought due to the differences in succession and politics and not difference in theology.

The Safavids Dynasty

From the battle of Karbala Sunni’s have dominated the political scene of Muslim rule. Fast forward to 16th Century three major empires control the regions Mughals from India, Ottoman Turks and Safavids. Both Mughals and Ottoman Turks were Sunnis whereas Safavids were Shias and they set out to conquer Iran. Today Iran is the center of Shia Islam but until Safavids set their eyes on Iran it was high seat of Sunni learning and the majority population was Sunni. After Safavids invaded Iran they tried all the means to make Iran as Shia majority and with time, rewards and coercion they were successful. This gave Shia a country, a military and ethnic identity.

This sets the stage for Arab Sunni and Iran Shia and the conflicts that range to this day.

Wahabism

In the Arab region a new philosophy starts called Wahabism and basic tenet of this religious movement is that of revivalism. This movement allied itself with one of the most powerful clan of Arabia called the Saudis. One of the important characteristics of the movement was to go back to the Prophet’s time. It preached that true Islamic faith require imitating faith and practice of 7th century during the time of Prophet and all the evolution of Islam from then on had been forms of corruption and this includes Shia Islam.

Two oil rich behemoths of the Middle east Wahabi Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran will create an atmosphere that fuels the divide till date.

Sykes-Picot Agreement

After the first world war, Allied powers were victorious which gave them chance to define things in Middle east. Allied powers included Britain, USA, France and on the other side were Germany and Turkey. Turkey was the Ottoman empire but after the defeat in the World War the empire collapsed. The Britain and France wanted to define an agreement to divide the Ottoman empire and this responsibility fell on British Mark Sykes and French François Georges-Picot.They agreed to divide the middle east like a thanksgiving turkey and carved out new nation states. This affected the countries Iraq, Jordan and Syria where this arbitrary line created lot of problem.

Before Sykes-Picot these diverse communities were living for centuries together and the rulers were so far away that the local traditions were untouched. With Sykes-Picot authoritarian rulers were made heads on these states and were superimposed on these population. This created tensions in the communities and during 1950/60 there were social uprising against authoritarian rulers and leftist secular dictators gained control. In this process, Saddam Hussein ascended in Iraq. These dictators were also considered as propped up the western countries and local population did not had faith in them.

In 1979, Iranian revolution erupts and Ayatollah Khomeini gains control on Iranian government. This became the background of Political Islam in the middle east. Islamic revolution was in minds of many but was led by Iran which was a Shia majority and was not liked by Saudi and many other Sunni dominated areas.

Proxy War

Saddam Hussein seeing an opportunity started a bid invade Iran. His goal was to annex oil rich majority Arab province of Khuzestan. Iran repels Saddam Hussein’s army in an epic defence. Iraq offers a peace deal but Khomeini rejects it and calls for Iraqi invasion instead. Iranian revolution and the war led to sectarianism in big way. There was a sense of recapturing Karbala from the Sunnis bringing back the historical sectarianism at the forefront.

On the other hand Saudi Arabia supported Iraq and this led to many conflicts between Iran and Saudi Arabia. This war goes on for 8 bloody years costing 1 million lives. This made Iraq weak but still it it tried to invade Kuwait culminating into first Gulf War. And finally invasion of Iraq led by USA in 2003. With no government a civil war ensues in Iraq and people start to get into sectarianism more than ever. Saudi and Iran both started supporting different sides.

This proxy war did not stop there. The Arab spring unrest begins in Syria in 2011 against Bashar Al-assad’s regime. Initially it started with all Syrian people united. Assad’s regime belongs to Alawites, an offshoot of Shia. They wanted to paint the rebels as some fringe Wahabi Sunni movement. That also fueled sectarianism and outside interference.

After 2013 ISIS became powerful in Iraq and Syria and took this sectarianism to another level. ISIS used sectarianism to recruit. It also called Iraqi government and their Iranian supporters as Safavids alluding to the 16th century dynasty.

Finis

Shia and Sunnis have lived in relatively peaceful atmosphere for centuries and today’s issues are not directly related to sectarian differences. It is more about political control and sensational journalism. It is my attempt to spread the understanding for non-Muslims and bringing the historical significance behind it. Most of the Islamic world may be already aware of this story.