WikiShia is a free

online encyclopedia An online encyclopedia, also called an Internet encyclopedia, is a digital encyclopedia accessible through the Internet. Some examples include pre-World Wide Web services that offered the '' Academic American Encyclopedia'' beginning in 1980, Enc ...

about

Shi'a Islam Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

. It contains more than 23,000 content pages about Shia Islam in 13 languages including English,

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, Turkish, French,

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

, Indonesian,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, Chinese,

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and

Kiswahili Swahili, also known as as it is referred to in the Swahili language, is a Bantu language originally spoken by the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent littoral i ...

. WikiShia is affiliated with

Ahl Al-Bayt World Assembly The Ahl al-Bayt World Assembly () is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) in Iran. It was founded in 1990 by Supreme Leader of Iran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a group of Shiite elites under the supervision of the Islamic auth ...

, and was officially launched on June 22, 2014 in the International Congress of Sibt al-Nabi (a) in Tehran, by Hasan Rohani, the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The term "Shi'a" means "follower", "faction" or "party" of the Islamic prophet

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

's son-in-law and cousin 'Ali b. Abi Talib, whom the Shia believe to be Muhammad's successor in religious leadership and the

Caliphate A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

. WikiShia provides the visitors and readers with information about Shia's twelve Imams and their families as well as the political, social and cultural aspects of their lives. The aim, as is mentioned in the About Page, is to explain all concepts and issues related to knowing

Twelver Shia Twelver Shi'ism (), also known as Imamism () or Ithna Ashari, is the largest branch of Shi'a Islam, comprising about 90% of all Shi'a Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers to its adherents' belief in twelve divinely ordained leaders, known as th ...

(Imamiya) (including issues in history, geography,

fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...

, principles of fiqh, concepts, beliefs, names, etc.). WikiShia is managed by a group of scholars in Qom, Iran.

History

On 22 May 2013, the first session for collaboration of the authors of WikiShia was held. After some session of education, on June 17, the first entry of WikiShia was published on the web. In July 2013, the option for browsing the website without a username was made available to all Internet users. On June 22, 2014, in the International Congress of Sibt al-Nabi (a) in Tehran, WikiShia was officially launched by Hasan Rohani, the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Content

The content of WikiShia includes beliefs, personalities, books, places, events, ceremonies and rituals of the sects believing in the household of Muhammad, the

Prophet of Islam Prophets in Islam () are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God's message on Earth and serve as models of ideal human behaviour. Some prophets are categorized as messengers (; sing. , ), those who transmit divine revelation, most ...

. History of Shia and any other issue which would be related to Shi'a in some ways are included in WikiShia. General Islamic concepts that are believed by all Muslims or related to Islamic history are also among the topics in this wiki. There are also some articles about other Islamic sects. By the end of January 2022, the number of entries in Wikishia in all languages reached 24390, and it is growing day by day. As of January 2022, it has more than 4080 entries in English. Many scholars in Qom supervise the content of WikiShia. Currently, WikiShia is not an open wiki, so editing it is possible only with the managers' permission. It has about 100 active users all of which are verified by

, but it has been said in "About page" of WikiShia that it'll be changed to an open wiki so everyone could signup and contribute. Neutrality policy in the concepts of Shia and the Ahlul Bayt is to be observed in WikiShia. Still, this wiki's contributors consider themselves to be preaching the school of Shi'a, so the entries are written to explain and defend their teachings. However, the judgment about scholarly and historical disagreements is left to the reader. Due to religious disagreements, contributors of WikiShia are asked to try their best to benefit from first-hand sources accepted by the two great Islamic schools (Shia and

Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...

References

{{Reflist, 30em Iranian online encyclopedias Shia Islamic websites

History

Content

See also

References