sects, only one of which would be orthodox and be saved!
In general, Moslems may be roughly classified as belonging to two main sects, the Sunnites and the Shiites. The first sect is by far the largest, and it is the sect that adheres most closely to the path which Mohammed followed. The Sunnites predominate in most Moslem lands, and it is they who hold the belief that the caliph is the visible successor of Mohammed. The Shiites are comparatively few in number. They are found chiefly in Iran, where they predominate, in Iraq and in India. The Shiites do not accept the doctrine of the caliph as the leader of the Moslems, and they have a theory of divine leadership of the Moslem people and especially of their own sect by an imam, a belief which has led to many bitter and bloody wars between the two communities.
Of more recent origin are two other groups: the Wahhabis, who as we have seen earlier in this chapter conducted a campaign of reform in the eighteenth century, and who are today a powerful force in Arabia; and the Ahmadiyas, followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of India, who just before the beginning of the present century organized a great revival movement for the purpose of spreading Islam to all the countries of the world. The Ahmadiya movement is active today, and carries on missionary propaganda in many lands. 1
x The Ahmadiya movement is described more fully in Chapter Eight.
THE
