I mentioned in the entry on Caliph al-Walid that he ordered a scholar descended from Ali to be poisoned, as his father had been also. This man, the fourth Shi’ite Imam, was known as al-Sajjad. He had many sons, but two in particular. His oldest son was from al-Sajjad’s marriage to his cousin, so descended from both Hassan and Husayn, the two sons of Ali. This son, Muhammad, was carried along to Karbala when his father al-Sajjad narrowly survived by being stricken by illness and unable to fight. The other notable son, Zayd, was from a later marriage to a girl from Sind (Pakistan).
Muhammad became the fifth Shi’ite Imam and is known as al-Baqir, the one who splits knowledge open. He lived quietly in Medina, teaching many students, caring for his poverty-stricken relatives, and reminding people about what happened to his grandfather at Karbala. The Umayyad Caliphs of this period — Walid, Sulayman, Yazid II, and Hisham — were also establishing schools and bringing students from afar.
Theology and the basic teachings of Islam became matters of dispute. Al-Baqir was centrally positioned to argue against the Kharijites and other groups that formed. One group believed that no sin should be judged, leaving it to Allah alone. Another group believed the Prophet’s family had divine status, while another group introduced some Jewish beliefs.
Umar II, the most pious of these Umayyads, asked al-Baqir for advice and, along with ending the ritual cursing of Ali, he returned some land and other funds to the family. Interesting: his order to begin collecting stories about Muhammad is also a sign of kindness toward the family, since their main possession was a core narration about him. The hadiths eventually collected didn’t follow Shi’ite stories, but apparently at the start, it was a pro-Shi’ite thing to do.
Al-Baqir’s younger brother Zayd was also on good terms with Umar II. Zayd was another leading scholar, and he was said to look most like their great-grandfather Ali. After Umar II’s death, during the short-lived reign of Yazid II, Zayd began to consider if the time might be right for the family’s return to political power. As always, Iraq—and especially the city of Kufa—was the supportive base for launching a revolt.
In 740, long after Umar II’s passing, Zayd raised an army of 15,000 from Basra, Kufa and Mosul. It may have been more of an army in name and on paper than actually in the field, because the first step was to take over Kufa, imprisoning its Umayyad governor. Instead, someone told the Umayyad governor of the plot.
The governor called for the people of Kufa to come to the mosque, where he locked and guarded the doors. With the city more empty than usual, the Umayyads could begin a door to door search for Zayd. Zayd, on his side, had a slim chance of success if he could turn the tables. He and his men overcame the mosque guards and called for the people to come out. But in that moment, the Kufans who had promised to support him let him down. Afraid of the Umayyads, they declared support for the government. Zayd’s rebellion went on a bit longer, but it was just a matter of time until he was captured and killed.
Zayd’s rebellion did not succeed, but for a long time and even into the present, there remained a sect of Shi’ites who believed Zayd was the true Imam, rather than his older half-brother al-Baqir. The sect is called Zaidiyyah and it has been the religion of various kingdoms in Arabia, Spain, Iran, Yemen and Morocco, but today, it is mainly based in Yemen. At the end of the 9th century, a Zaidi set up the Rassid state in Yemen. They had Iman-Caliphs and lasted until 1962. Over 1000 years!
In fact, the civil war in Yemen today was driven by rebels of the Houthi tribe, who are Zaidis. Since 2014, the Houthis have controlled the government in Sana’a. So Zayd’s revolt is pretty relevant still today.
- The Lives of the Twelve: A Look at the Social and Political Lives of the Twelve Infallible Imams. Shaykh Mahdi Pishvai, translated by Sayyid Ali Musawi.