Shi'a

alternative Shia · alternative Shiah · alternative Shi'ah · alternative obsolete Schiah

1. usuallyShi'a Islam.

   Shi’a is one of the two larger divisions of Islam, […]

   2008, J. Gordon Melton, The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena, Visible Ink Press, page 181

   3 more examples

   In Islam, Sunni is a more triumphant version of the faith than Shia, which stresses the importance of suffering, following the founder Ali, who was persecuted.

   1998, Geert H. Hofstede, Masculinity and Femininity: The Taboo Dimension of National Cultures, page 205

   Jordanians do not know what Shi’a is about, and it was very recently, [the] last few years, when we start[ed] being exposed to Shi’a.

   a. 2013, Bruce Anthony Collet, Refugee Education as a Gauge of Liberal Multiculturalism: Iraqi Students in Jordan and the United States in 2013, Heidi Biseth, Halla B. Holmarsdottir, Human Rights in the Field of Comparative Education, Sense Publishers, page 158

   But the Shī'a was not yet a sect; there can as yet be no division of Islam between Shi'ite and Sunni.

   2016, Abdul Ganiy Oloruntele, The Sunni and the Shi’A: History, Doctrines and Discrepancies

   Synonyms: Shi'i Islam, Shi'ism

2. collectiveThe followers of this branch of Islam; the Shiites.

   Throughout the Umayyad period, the Shi'a were confined to southern 'Iraq [...]

   2013, Robert Brenton Betts, The Sunni-Shi'a Divide, page 17

plural Shi'as · alternative Shia · alternative Shiah · alternative Shi'ah · alternative obsolete Schiah

1. Synonym of Shiite.

   Synonyms: Shiite