Rafida

Rāfiḍa (Arabic رافضة, literally " rejectors " ') is a polemical collective noun that is since the eighth century, used for certain Shiite groups, especially the Imami. Alternatively, the same significant plurals Rawafid ( روافض ) or Arfāḍ ( ارفاض ) are used. In German the term is also reproduced with Rāfiditen. Belonging to the Rāfiditen is referred to in Arabic as Rafḍ ( رفض ).

The term was first used Rāfiḍa innerschiitischer disputes only in the context, namely for those Shiites who were not ready in the year 743, to support the Aliden Zaid ibn ʿ Alī in his revolt against the Umayyads. The background was that Zaid refused as they curse the first two caliphs Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al - Khattab. The name " rejectors " ( Rāfiḍa ) they received because they rejected Zayd ibn ʿ Alī. In the polemical vocabulary of Zaydi, so the followers of Zayd ibn ʿ Alī, the term input later found in the Sunni heresiography. Here so that those Shiites were referred to, in contrast to the moderate Zaydi Imamate of the first two caliphs Abu Bakr and ʿ Umar not recognized, but on the other hand, in their worship of the Shia Imams not go as far as the Ghulat. Al- Jahiz wrote with his book al - ʿ Uthmānīya in the 9th century, a refutation of the views of Rāfiditen.

To date, the concept plays an important role in the Sunni- Shiite polemics.