The Diptych
Ibadi Islam and Shia Islam
Ibadi Islam stands as a Branch; Shia Islam stands as a Branch. This comparison renders under slot registry version 1.0, in the registry's fixed order. The Diptych displays; it does not score, rank, or adjudicate.
Coverage: Ibadi Islam has 5 sections documented and 2 partial; its evaluative coverage is pending. Shia Islam has 6 sections documented and 1 partial; its evaluative coverage is pending.
1. In its own words
The entity stated in its own words: its self-description, before any external description.
Ibadi Islam
Ibadi Islam descends from the Kharijite secession of the first Islamic century, moderated early into a tradition of elected imams, congregational discipline, and quiet endurance. It is neither Sunni nor Shia, and it survives as the majority tradition of Oman with communities in North and East Africa.
Source: The Musnad of al-Rabi ibn Habib.
Confidence: high
Shia Islam
Shia Islam began as the party of Ali and became a family of traditions ordered by the Imamate: the line of divinely guided Imams through whom the Prophet's authority continued. Its Twelver, Ismaili, and Zaidi branches divided over the succession within that line.
Source: The Nahj al-Balagha, attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib.
Confidence: high
2. Scale and spread
How large the entity is and where it is found: adherents, bodies, and geography, with sources.
Ibadi Islam
Ibadi Islam counts a few million adherents. Oman is its demographic and scholarly center, where Ibadis form a large share of the population, with older communities in Algeria's M'zab valley, Libya's Nafusa mountains, Tunisia's Djerba, and Zanzibar.
Source: Valerie J. Hoffman, The Essentials of Ibadi Islam (Syracuse University Press, 2012).
Confidence: high
Shia Islam
Shia Islam counts roughly 150 to 200 million adherents, about ten to thirteen percent of all Muslims. Shia form majorities in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and Azerbaijan, with large communities in Lebanon, Yemen, Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan.
The range inside, as documented:
- Sufism: The mystical path of Islam: remembrance of God, the master-disciple chain, and the orders that carry it, crossing the Sunni and Shia branches alike.
Source: Pew Research Center, 'Mapping the Global Muslim Population' (2009).
Confidence: high
10. Community and governance
How the entity is organized: its bodies, offices, and the directory of its communities.
Shia Islam
Not yet documented
Coverage record created at intake; content not yet documented.
13. Internal diversity
The range inside the entity: its branches, schools, and movements, each in its own terms.
Ibadi Islam
Not yet documented
Coverage record created at intake; content not yet documented.
17. Contested history
The points of the entity's history that are contested, and by whom.
20. Sources
Ibadi Islam
- The Musnad of al-Rabi ibn Habib.
- Valerie J. Hoffman, The Essentials of Ibadi Islam (2012).
Shia Islam
- The Nahj al-Balagha, attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib.
- S. H. M. Jafri, The Origins and Early Development of Shia Islam (1979).
Citations resolve to the site's References register as that rebuild lands; exports of this comparison stand under the tools above.
| Section | Ibadi Islam | Shia Islam |
|---|---|---|
| In its own words | populated: Ibadi Islam descends from the Kharijite secession of the first Islamic century, moderated early into a tradition of elected imams, congregational discipline, and quiet endurance. It is neither Sunni nor Shia, and it survives as the majority tradition of Oman with communities in North and East Africa. | populated: Shia Islam began as the party of Ali and became a family of traditions ordered by the Imamate: the line of divinely guided Imams through whom the Prophet's authority continued. Its Twelver, Ismaili, and Zaidi branches divided over the succession within that line. |
| Scale and spread | populated: Ibadi Islam counts a few million adherents. Oman is its demographic and scholarly center, where Ibadis form a large share of the population, with older communities in Algeria's M'zab valley, Libya's Nafusa mountains, Tunisia's Djerba, and Zanzibar. | populated: Shia Islam counts roughly 150 to 200 million adherents, about ten to thirteen percent of all Muslims. Shia form majorities in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and Azerbaijan, with large communities in Lebanon, Yemen, Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. |
| Historical timeline | populated | populated |
| Sources of authority | not documented | not documented |
| Ultimate reality | not documented | not documented |
| The human person | not documented | not documented |
| Problem and solution | not documented | not documented |
| Ethics and hard cases | not documented | not documented |
| Practice and devotion | not documented | not documented |
| Community and governance | partial | not documented |
| Art and material culture | not documented | not documented |
| Science and technology posture | not documented | not documented |
| Internal diversity | not documented | populated |
| Contributions | not documented | not documented |
| Internal critique | not documented | not documented |
| External critique and reply | not documented | not documented |
| Contested history | partial | partial |
| What each says about the other | not documented | not documented |
| What this comparison cannot settle | populated: This comparison sets two self-descriptions side by side; it does not decide between them. A tradition is a living range of positions, and each panel renders the range this site has documented, which is not the whole of the tradition. Where a cell is marked not yet documented, the gap belongs to this site's documentation, not to the tradition. Questions of truth between the panels turn on premises the reader brings: what counts as evidence, what authority is recognized, and what a human life is for. The instrument does not score, rank, or adjudicate. | populated: This comparison sets two self-descriptions side by side; it does not decide between them. A tradition is a living range of positions, and each panel renders the range this site has documented, which is not the whole of the tradition. Where a cell is marked not yet documented, the gap belongs to this site's documentation, not to the tradition. Questions of truth between the panels turn on premises the reader brings: what counts as evidence, what authority is recognized, and what a human life is for. The instrument does not score, rank, or adjudicate. |
| Sources | populated | populated |