The Branches of Islam

This page describes Islam's main branches and the schools within them. How they arose is told on the History page.

What are the main branches of Islam?

The two main branches are Sunni and Shia, with the Ibadi as a much smaller third. In 2009, the Pew Research Center estimated that 87 to 90 percent of the world's Muslims are Sunni and 10 to 13 percent Shia, or 154 to 200 million people. Pew calls these approximate ranges, since many countries rarely record sectarian affiliation, and it gives no separate figure for the Ibadis.¹

Branch	Size	Where concentrated	What sets it apart
Sunni	87 to 90 percent of Muslims (Pew, 2009)1	A median of two-thirds or more of Muslims in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa (Pew, 2012)2	Leaders chosen by the community; four schools of law3
Shia: Twelver	Not reliably known; the great majority of Shia (Madelung, 1987)4	Iran, southern Iraq, Bahrain, eastern Saudi Arabia, southern Lebanon, South Asia45	Twelve imams, the last in hiding, in Twelver teaching4
Shia: Ismaili	Not reliably known. The Ismaili Imamat gives 12 to 15 million for the Ismailis who follow the Aga Khan (2025, the community's own figure).6	Over 35 countries in a 2025 Imamat statement, over 70 on another Imamat page67	Nizaris follow a living imam, the Aga Khan; Tayyibis follow a chief missionary while their imam is absent64
Shia: Zaydi	Not reliably known; Pew (2009) gives no separate figure1	Northern highlands of Yemen8	An imam from Muhammad's family who earns the role by learning and by rising against unjust rule4
Ibadi	Not reliably known; one writer gave "a few million" in 20179	Oman, the only Ibadi-majority country, and parts of East and North Africa910	A leader chosen for piety by the community's leading men9

What is Sunni Islam?

Sunni Islam is the largest branch. Its Arabic name, ahl al-Sunna wa al-jama'a, means the people of Sunna and consensus³. The Sunna is Muhammad's example, which Sunni law takes, with the Quran, as its primary source. Sunni scholars hold that Muhammad did not explicitly name a successor, so the community was to choose its leader.³

Sunni law has four main schools (madhhab). The table adapts Mohammad Hashim Kamali's 1987 survey; he also lists Oman for the Hanbali school, though most Omanis are Ibadi.¹¹⁹

School	Founder	Where it predominated (1987)
Hanafi	Abu Hanifa (died 767)	Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India's Muslims; about a third of all Muslims11
Maliki	Malik ibn Anas (died 795)	Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Upper Egypt, Sudan, Bahrain, Kuwait11
Shafii	al-Shafii (died 819 or 820)	Lower Egypt, southern Arabia, East Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia311
Hanbali	Ahmad ibn Hanbal (died 855)	Saudi Arabia, Qatar11

In belief, Sunnis follow three main currents. Two, the Ash'ari and the Maturidi, are Sunni schools of systematic theology.¹² R. M. Frank writes that the Ash'ari is commonly regarded as the most important single school of its kind.¹³ A third current, which David Jalajel calls Salafi, rejects the scholastic theology of both; its early scholars are often called Athari, from athar, "textual traditions." It is associated with the Hanbali school, and its best-known voices are Ibn Taymiyya and his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya.¹²

What is Shia Islam?

Shia Islam is the second-largest branch. Its groups all uphold the right of Muhammad's family to lead the community; the name comes from shi'at Ali, "the party of Ali," Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law.⁴ Shia hold that Muhammad appointed Ali as his successor at Ghadir Khumm, shortly before his death.⁴ Shia legal scholars rely on hadith reports transmitted through their imams, Kamali writes, and have their own Hadith collections. The Shia branches divided over which of Ali's descendants held the imamate.¹¹

Twelvers

Twelvers recognize twelve imams, beginning with Ali. In Madelung's account, Twelver teaching holds that humanity always needs a leader appointed by God, kept free from sin and error. Twelvers hold that when the eleventh imam died in 874, his son, the twelfth imam, was hidden. They teach that he lives on in concealment and will return as the Mahdi, the messianic restorer of Islam.⁴ Twelver law is sometimes called the Jafari school, after the sixth imam, Jafar al-Sadiq (died 765).⁴

Ismailis

Ismailis trace the imamate through Jafar's son Ismail, his designated successor, who died before him; most of Jafar's followers came to recognize another son, Musa.⁴ Their line later split: the Nizaris' imams continue to the Aga Khans, while the Tayyibis of Yemen and India follow a chief missionary (dai mutlaq) in their imam's absence.⁴ The Ismaili Imamat states that, upon divine command, Muhammad designated Ali as leader, and that the office of imam continues for all time.⁷ In 2025 it named Rahim Aga Khan the 50th hereditary imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims.⁶

Zaydis

Zaydis take their name from Zayd ibn Ali, Husayn's grandson, who led a revolt against the Umayyads and was killed in 740. They hold that any descendant of Hasan or Husayn with the needed learning may take up the imamate by rising against unjust rulers. Zaydis do not hold the imam to be free from error, and they judge Muhammad's companions more mildly than other Shia do.⁴

Robert Burrowes notes that Zaydism is often called the "fifth school" of Sunni Islam, though it is a Shia school, and that it rejects a hidden imam. Zaydi imams ruled northern Yemen, with breaks, from 897 until the revolution of 1962.⁸ This section relies on these scholars; no Zaydi institution's own account could be opened online.

What is Ibadi Islam?

Ibadi Islam is a small branch that is neither Sunni nor Shia. Its roots lie in groups who left Ali's camp in 657, when he agreed to arbitration in his war with Muawiya, the governor of Syria. Others call these groups Kharijites, "seceders."¹⁰⁹

Ibadis reject the label Kharijite, writes Anthony Fiscella. He quotes Kahlan al-Kharusi, an Ibadi and Oman's assistant grand mufti, who writes that the Ibadi school inherits none of the Kharijites' defining extremes, such as declaring sinful Muslims unbelievers and demanding their repentance or execution.⁹ Tayeb El-Hibri writes that Ibadi law largely agrees with Sunni law, especially the Maliki school. Ibadis live in Oman, Zanzibar, Libya, the Tunisian island of Djerba, and southern Algeria.¹⁰

What divides the branches?

The first division was over who should lead the Muslim community after Muhammad.³ Sunnis hold that he left no explicit successor and that Abu Bakr was rightly the first caliph.³¹⁴ A hadith in al-Bukhari's Sunni collection reports that in his last illness Muhammad had Abu Bakr lead the people in prayer.¹⁵

Shia hold that he appointed Ali. Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi, a Twelver Shia scholar, quotes Muhammad at Ghadir Khumm: Whomsoever's Master I am, this 'Ali is his Master.¹⁶¹⁶ A version of the saying is also in the Sunni collection of al-Tirmidhi.¹⁷ Sunni scholars, writes the Sunni teacher Uthman Khan, read it as praise of Ali's greatness, not necessarily as his designation as leader.¹⁸ Ibadis, in Valerie Hoffman's account, hold that neither family nor divine choice should decide, but selection by the community's leading men.⁹

The branches also share a great deal. The Three Points of the Amman Message, issued in 2005 by a conference of 200 Muslim scholars from 50 countries, hold that followers of eight schools of law are Muslims:¹⁹ the four Sunni schools, the Jafari and Zaydi schools, the Ibadi school, and the Zahiri school. The eight, they say, agree on the basic principles of Islam, including one God, the Quran as God's revealed word, Muhammad as prophet, and the five pillars, and differ only on secondary matters.²⁰

Is Sufism a branch of Islam?

Sufism is not a branch but a mystical dimension of Islam, found among both Sunni and Shia Muslims.²¹²¹ Many Sufis belong to orders, or brotherhoods (tariqa); Pew's 2012 survey found that 92 percent of Senegal's Muslims belong to one. Pew gives no worldwide figure, since none is reliable.²¹ The Amman Message says that no one who practices true Sufism (tasawwuf) may be declared an apostate.²⁰

Which groups' Muslim status is disputed?

Some groups' relation to Islam is debated, and many Muslims do not accept them as Muslim. One prominent debate concerns the Ahmadiyya movement, founded in 1889 in the Punjab, India, by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835 to 1908).²²

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community teaches that God sent Ghulam Ahmad as the Mahdi and the metaphorical second coming of Jesus, whose coming Muhammad foretold.²³ Its official site quotes him affirming Muhammad as the Seal of the Prophets, and says that Ahmadis differ from some Muslim scholars on the meaning of that verse, which does not make anyone an unbeliever.²⁴

Yohanan Friedmann writes that Ghulam Ahmad's statements that God called him a prophet ran against the belief that prophecy ended with Muhammad, and drew fierce opposition from mainstream Sunni scholars. In 1974, Pakistan amended its constitution to declare Ahmadis non-Muslims.²² In Pew's 2012 survey, most Muslims in Indonesia and Pakistan said Ahmadis are not Muslims.²⁵

Views also differ on smaller groups whose relation to Islam is debated, among them the Alevis, the Alawites, and the Druze. Pew places the Alevis in the Shia tradition and describes the Alawites as practicing a form of Shia Islam.²⁵ The Druze arose from a split in the Fatimid branch of the Ismailis, Madelung writes.⁴ In Pew's 2012 survey, 69 percent of Turkish Muslims accepted the Alevis as Muslims. Among Lebanese Muslims, 57 percent accepted the Alawites and 39 percent the Druze.²⁵

The comparison Christianity vs Islam sets Islam's branches beside Christianity's, and the book Christianity vs Islam covers both faiths in depth.