Can you beat them?
Sunni and Shia Islam Quiz
Ten questions on Islam's oldest divide, from how it began and why Karbala still matters to the countries where each branch is strongest today. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
- 10 questions
- About 3 minutes
- Medium
- Includes a map and a photo
About this quiz
The split between Sunni and Shia Muslims is fourteen centuries old, and it still shapes the politics of the Middle East. The quiz starts with how the divide began and what the word Shia means, then follows it through the killing of Hussein at Karbala in 680, Iran's conversion to Shia Islam and the American invasion of Iraq.
It suits anyone who hears the words Sunni and Shia in the news and wants to know how the two branches differ, how big each one is and where their followers live. The hardest questions come at the end, on Twelver Shia belief and on Iraq.
Topics in this quiz
Read up first
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Encyclopedia
Ayatollah
The senior rank of Shia clergy, an academic title that acquired political meaning only in the twentieth century.
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Encyclopedia
Kharijites
The seventh-century faction that declared judgment belongs to God alone, killed the caliph Ali, and invented the logic every modern jihadist group uses.
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Encyclopedia
Hadith
The reported sayings and actions of Muhammad, the second source of Islamic law, and the most contested body of text in the Muslim world.
