Note 549 — Chapter VI

The Zaydíyat derive their name from Záíd, son of Alí, son of Záín el-abeddin. They are subdivided into three branches, according to others into five, under as many chiefs. I shall only mention three. The first, the Jarudíyat, think that the Imámate was destined by the prophet to Alí, but that after the two sons of the latter, Hasan and Hosain, the sacred office was uncertain in their children, and that those only who rose, sword in hand, were Imáms; they do not agree upon the last Imám, still expected. The second branch, the Salaimaniyat, admit the right of Abubekr and Omar to the Imámate, but declare as infidels Osman, Zobeir, and Aisha. The third branch, the Báíteriyat, are for the most part in accordance with the second, as to what regards Osman. These three branches are heretics in the dogmas only, but, in jurisprudence, they follow almost all the orthodox doctrine of Abú Hanifáh.—(See Journal asiatique, 1825, tome VII. p. 32. Art. de M. de Hammer.)