Shiaism in the Ummayad period was rather vague and indefinite as compared to later Shiaism. There was no proper theory, but rather, the manifestation of the need to follow a charismatic leader for spiritual peace. By this charismatic leader is meant the Imam for whom the Shias were in wait. Most of those who had been accepted as Imam were unable to fulfil the aspirations of the people and thus the search went on. During this time, a number of men with political ambitions and qualities of leadership, found a way of using this widespread desire for an Imam. Others had resigned themselves to political inactivity and they justified this attitude in the theory that the Imam was not dead but in concealment and that at an appropriate time he would return as the Mahdi or Guided One (a kind of Messiah) to right all wrongs and establish justice on earth. The Shiites did not witness much of the intellectual debates that were taking place in the Kharjite circles during this time. Most of the times, Shiaism was inactive and anything that was happening was happening under the surface. Then suddenly, when a leader appeared, there would be an explosion of activity.

On the death of Ali in 661 some of his followers were inclined to support the claims of Al Hasan, the son of Ali and Prophet Muhammad`s daughter Fatima. However, Al Hasan gave up his claims. In the troubled period following the death of the latter in 680 Al Hasan`s brother, Al Husayn was encouraged to lead a revolt in Iraq. The promised support was not forthcoming, but Al Husayn and his small band could not be prevailed on to surrender and were eventually massacred by a vastly superior army at Kerbela (Karbala) in October 680. These tragic events are still annually commemorated by Shiites with a kind of Passion Play during the month of Muharram, the Arabic month in which the original disaster occurred.

In 684, in the confusion of the civil war, a group of men from Kufa calling themselves the Penitents raised an army not only to show their penitence but also to avenge Al Husayn. When they marched against an Umayyad force, however, they were utterly defeated. Thus the beginning of the Shiite movement was a series of political failures.

The next event in Shiite history is slightly more successful and, apart from that, of great significance. This is the rising of Al Mukhtar in Kufa from 685 to 687. Up to this time all the Shiites, or at least all the prominent Shiites, had been Arabs. In Kufa, however, Al Mukhtar was also joined by clients and because of tension between the Arabs and the clients, was more and more forced to rely on the latter. Though the rising was crushed by Ibn az Zubayr`s general, it had sufficient success to give the clients the idea that they had a certain amount of political power if they wielded it right.

A man could become a client in various ways, but the clients intended in this context are probably all non-Arab Muslims. A member of one of the protected communities of Christians, Jews, etc., on becoming a Muslim left his own community and was attached as client to an Arab tribe (presumably because the Islamic community was regarded as a federation of Arab tribes). This was an inferior status, however, in some respects, and as more non-Arabs became Muslims there was a growing volume of dissatisfaction with it and a demand for equality. The clients attracted to Shiaism appear to have included both persons from the older strata of the population of Iraq and persons of Persian stock. There were many Persians among the Shiites during the Umayyad period, but it must be borne in mind that the close identification of Shiaism with Persia only dates from the sixteenth century. Nevertheless the rising of Al Mukhtar is an important stage in the development of Islam as a religion, because from this time onwards Shiaism was linked with the political grievances and aspirations of non-Arab Muslims. For fifty years after the death of Al Mukhtar in 687 there was no overt political activity among the Shiites, though Shiite religious ideas were doubtless spreading quietly beneath the surface.

As signs of collapse became evident in the Umayyad regime, the Shiites appear once more on the political stage. Two leaders were executed in Kufa in 737 and another in 742, all suspected of organizing an underground resistance. In 740 there was a serious insurrection under a great-great-grandson of Muhammad called Zayd, but it was quickly suppressed. Still more serious for the Umayyads was the revolt of Abd Allah ibn Muawiya, a great-grandson of Muhammad`s cousin Jafar. This lasted from 744 to 747. Finally, the movement which replaced the Umayyads by the Abbasids had much Shiite support, and on the religious side might be regarded as primarily a manifestation of Shiaism.

Thus during the Ummayad period, though sympathy and support for the Shias was widespread, the position of the Shias was rather vague. In particular there was no general recognition that the Imams later acknowledged by the Imamite and Ismailite branches of Shiaism, the descendants of Al Husayn, son of Ali, had any special status or special gifts. The tendency was to consider that the charismata requisite for the position of Imam belonged to all members of Muhammad`s clan of Hashim, whether descended from Muhammad through Fatima or not. Thus Umayyad Shiaism is an absolute chaos of ideas and attitudes. A beginning of order was introduced by the idea of designation (nass). This involves the view that there is only one Imam at a time and that the Imam designates his successor. In the Umayyad period, however, this was not wholly effective, since different groups recognized different Imams. A different line was taken by the Zaidites, the followers of the Zayd who revolted in 740. They would have nothing to do with the idea of a hidden Imam. Zayd`s revolt was a realistic attempt to provide an alternative government to that of the Umayyads. Thus the confusion and chaos of Shiaism in the Ummyad period was a reflection of the constant Shia search for an Imam.