Twelver Shiites' 12 Imams

Twelver Shiites form the main branch of Shiite Islam, itself the second-largest sect within Islam after the Sunni variety. Twelver Shiites trace their lineage to their 12 founding imams, or religious leaders, in the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries, when Shiites' subversive character was defining itself against Sunni repression.

As in all religions' early histories, the difference between myth and fact is often difficult to detect. But what may be a problem for the fact-based historian is not a problem, and may well be an advantage, to the believer, whose tenets rest on a rigidly convincing narrative--in Twelvers' case, of supreme martyrdom and victimology, usually at the hands of Sunnis, as reflected by the bloody fate of virtually every one of the Twelvers' founding imams.

Shiites' 12 Imams

Rank	Imam	Birth & Death	Manner of Death
1	Ali ibn Abu Talib	600–661	Assassinated
2	Hasan ibn Ali	624–680	Poisoned
3	Husayn ibn Ali	626–680	Beheaded
4	Ali ibn Husayn	658(?)-712	Poisoned
5	Muhammad ibn Ali	677–732	Poisoned
6	Ja'far ibn Muhammad	702–765	Poisoned
7	Musa ibn Ja'far	744-799	Poisoned
8	Ali ibn Musa	765-817	Poisoned
9	Muhammad ibn Ali	810-835	Poisoned
10	Ali ibn Muhammad	827-868	Poisoned
11	Hasan ibn Ali	846-874	Poisoned
12	Muhammad ibn al-Hasan	868?-?	Still living ”in occultation”