The Shiites in Historical Sources under Ayyubids In Egypt and Syria

Under the Ayyubids, due to the extinction of the Shiite government of Fatimids and the state’s suppressive anti-Shiite policy, the ground was prepared for the emergence of sectarian leanings of the Sunnite historiographers in Egypt and Syria that could reveal their real positions towards Shiism and its manifestations. Those historians’ approach to Shiism and its ideas is the subject of the present inquiry. This inquiry deals with the following two topics: (1) the true instance of Shiism for the historians; and (2) the Shiite doctrinal themes such as Ahl al-Bayt (or Itrat), superiority of Ahl al-Bayt, Karbala incident, Mahdawiyyat, and the like. To do so, the prominent historical works from some Sunnite historiographers of that time were investigated and compared in two general groups: dogmatic historians such as Imaduddin Isfahani, Abu Shama, and Ibn Wasel; and the fair historians such as Ibn Adim, Ibn Khallikan, and Sebt ibn Jowzi. The findings of this study show that Twelver Shiism was the instance of official Shiism for those historians, and rest of the sects were conceived as the deviated ramifications of it. The positions of most of those historians regarding the Shiite doctrinal themes are mainly close, with some minor differences, to Imamiya’s views. Thus, those historians’ cursing found sometimes on the Shiites was directed to Ismailiyya and its branches, not to Imamiya.