group prayer gatherings is beginning to be chal-
lenged by liberal Muslim organizations and com-
munities, such as the Progressive Muslim Union.
Also, women have begun to be trained as imams
at a recently established madrasa (legal college)
in morocco. Having women imams is still con-
sidered problematic by the majority of Muslim
scholars and conservative Muslims worldwide.
Sunnis also use the term imam as an honor-
ific title for the eponymous founders of the chief
schools of Islamic law. Thus, ahmad ibn hanbal,
the namesake for the hanbali legal school, is
known as Imam Ahmad. In such contexts, the title
indicates that he is an exemplar, or leader to be
followed in matters of law.
For Shii Muslims imam is associated with
a fundamental doctrine concerning charismatic
male leadership that comes from mUhammad via
his daughter, Fatima, and son-in-law and cousin,
ali, through his twin grandsons, Hasan and
hUsayn, and their descendants (known collec-
tively as the ahl al-bayt, “Family of the House”).
Muslims who follow the guidance of these Imams
are known as shiat Ali (the party of Ali). Forming
a dissenting minority after the death of Muham-
mad, the party of Ali believed that only a descen-
dant of Muhammad could lead the umma with the
necessary grace and spiritual aUthority. There are
three major groups of Shia who divide according
to the number of descending Imams they follow,
Twelve-Imam Shia (or the Imamiyya), Seven-
Imam Shia (or the Ismailiyya), and Five-Imam
Shia (or the Zaydiyya). Of the three groups, the
Twelve-Imam Shia is the largest community, today
found principally in iran and iraq. Ismaili Shiis
are numerous in northern india, while Zaidi Shiis
are a significant minority in yemen.
The doctrine of imama, the Shii theology
concerning the Imams, institutionalizes the pro-
phetic authority and charisma of Muhammad
and his family. Spiritual attributes of the Shii
Imams include divinely inspired knowledge, or
knowledge of the unseen (ilm al-ghayb); divine
investiture (nass) rather than human election;
sinlessness (isma) and infallible judgment; and
divine intimacy and friendship (wilaya). These
superhuman qualities make the Imams spiritual
mediators who are described in Shii hadith as
“pillar[s] of light” between Earth and heaven
and “witnesses for God to his creation.” Imams
provide the esoteric interpretation of revelation
(tawil) that guides the Shii community toward
salvation.
See also ismaili shiism; sUnnism; zaydi shiism.
Kathleen M. O’ConnorFurther reading: Farhad Daftary, The Ismailis: Their
History and Doctrines (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1990); Moojan Momen, An Introduction to Shii
Islam: The History and Doctrines of Twelver Shiism (New
Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985); Barnaby
Rogerson, The Heirs of Muhammad: Islam’s First Century
and the Origins of the Sunni-Shia Split (Woodstock,
N.Y.: Overlook Press, 2007); Abdulaziz Abdulhussein
Sachedina, Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the Mahdi in
Twelver Shiism (Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1981); W. Montgomery Watt, The Formative
Period of Islamic Thought (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Uni-
versity Press, 1973).imambarah See husayniyya.
imambargah See husayniyya.
iman See faith.
India (Official name: Republic of India)
Located in South Asia, the modern country of
India extends 1,000 miles east and west and
1,000 miles north and south at its widest points.
It has an area of nearly 1.3 million square miles,
about one-third the size of the United States. It is
composed of five chief geographical regions: the
Himalayan Mountain Range along its northernK 348 imambarah