larly those who in various ways lived on the social fringes of the Muslim community. An internal conflict erupted, and Ali was ultimately defeated and killed at the battle of Karbala, in present-day Iraq.
The death of Ali ended the political struggle in the short term, with victory for the mainstream Muslim leadership. However, the support that had gathered around Ali did not simply evaporate, but remained as a challenge to the legitimacy of the Establishment leadership. The term Shia derives from "party of Ali." The distinction between Shia and Sunni (in effect "mainstream") Muslims was not primarily theological, in the sense that various divisions among Christian sectarians were theological. There were no charges of heresy or mutual excommunication. All Muslims continued to share the same basic principles of their faith, as they do today. However, Islam is a worldly faith, concerned with practical godliness in everyday life rather than with abstract theological speculation about the nature of God. The distinction between Shia and Sunni Muslims was thus primarily one of legal interpretation and authority -- which, however, therefore has strongly political overtones.
Shia Muslims thus continued to live in pockets throughout the Islamic world. Often, as as at the time of Ali's original followers, the Shia were drawn from and associated with relatively marginalized groups. In some cases, however, Shia groups came to hold political power, a notable example being the Fatamid Caliphate in Egypt during the Islamic middle centuries.
A more notable special case was Persia, or Iran. When the peoples to the north and west of the Arabian Peninsula accepted Islam in the centuries after being freed of Roman rule, they also adopted the Arabic language (closely related to the languages most outside of Egypt had previously spoken), and with it an identity as Arabs. When Persians turned to Islam, however, they retained their P...