Lit. ‘Twelvers,’ the majority branch of the Shi‘i Muslims who acknowledge twelve Imams in lineal succession from ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, after the Prophet Muhammad. Following Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 765.) the Ithna’asharis acknowledged his younger son Mūsā al-Kāẓim as their Imam while the Ismailis recognised Ismail, the eldest son of Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, as their Imam.
