Zaydism

Zaydism (Arabic: الزَّيْدِيَّة, romanized: az-Zaydiyya), also referred to as Fiver Shi'ism, is a denomination of Shia Islam that emerged in the eighth century following the unsuccessful rebellion of Zayd ibn Ali against the Umayyad Caliphate. Zaydism is one of the three denominations of Shia Islam; the other two are Twelver Shia Islam and Ismailism. The Zaydis and Ismailis constitute a minority within Shia Islam, in contrast to Twelvers, who constitute the predominant denomination. Zaydism is typically considered the Shia denomination that is closest to Sunni Islam, although the "classical" form of Zaydism (usually referred to as Hadawi) historically changed its stance on Sunni and Shia traditions multiple times, to the point where Zaydis' simply accepting Ali as the rightful successor to Muhammad was enough to consider them Shia Muslims. Zaydis regard rationalism as more important than Quranic literalism and historically were quite tolerant towards Shafi'i Sunnis, the jurisprudential school of about half of the Yemenis. Most of the world's Zaydis are in Yemen and the Najran province in Saudi Arabia.