and they believe that the 12th Imam, mUham-
mad al-mUntazar (b. 868), entered concealment
as a boy in 874. His concealment will end only
when God allows, just before Judgment Day. The
Twelve-Imam Shia follow their own legal tradi-
tion, which is divided into Akhbari (traditional-
ist) and Usuli (rationalist) Schools. They now
comprise an estimated 90 percent of the world’s
Shii population, and they are majorities in iran
(89 percent), Iraq (60 percent), Bahrain (70 per-
cent), and Azerbaijan (85 percent). There are also
Twelve-Imam Shii minority populations in Leba-
non, eastern Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, United
Arab Emirates, aFghanistan, Tajikistan, pakistan,
and india, as well as sizeable immigrant commu-
nities in Europe and the United States.
The second sect Shii is known as ismaili shiism
(also called the Seveners and the Sabiyya). The
Ismailis recognize Ismail (d. 760), Jaafar al-Sadiq’s
first son, as the rightful seventh Imam instead of
Musa al-Kazim, as claimed by the Twelve-Imam
Shia. The Fatimid dynasty that ruled in North
Africa and Egypt from 909 to 1171 claimed to be
caliph-imams descended from Ismail, and they
gave rise to the two major Ismaili sects known as
the Mustalis and Nizaris. Fatimid missionaries,
known as dais, spread the doctrines of Ismaili Shi-
ism to yemen, Syria, Iran, and India. Because ofShiism 625 J