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Arabic: العليئية English: Al-'Aliyiyyah or Aliyiyism or Aliyiy refers to a Sufi order or tariqa within Zaydi Shia Islam. Aliyites are a Sufi group that have an emphasis on each individual studying to become like their own scholar, with an emphasis on acting on one's own ijtihad, interpreting Quran and Hadiths, and not blindly following religious beliefs. Because of this, the Aliyites are not organized and they don't have a central authority or single scholar or Imam that unifies their community, and internal differences are abound. The Aliyites have a range of different beliefs and interpretations. They believe there can be more than one Imam at one time, for different locations and different people groups who speak different languages. The job of an Imam is to help people stay guided and teach them how not to make ijtihad and to prevent misinterpretation and abuse of religious beliefs and systems, as well as to be the rope of Allah, a spiritual guide. Similar to the Alevis of Turkiye, the Aliyites don't force anyone to practice Islam or do things like wearing hijab, claiming that everything is a choice, Allah gave all human beings free will, and these matters are between a Muslim and God and are personal, and so judgement isn't passed for women who don't wear hijab or people who get tattoos, etc., although following the Quran and Hadith and imams is encouraged and highly beneficial in the Aliyite tradition. Nobody knows for sure how old the Aliyite movement actually is or how many followers it has, due to its secretive and underground nature, but one narrative claims that the Aliyite faith developed when Yemeni Zaydi Shiites and Yemeni Sufis from the Sunni Hanafi Madhab, traveled to the Sokoto Caliphate, a Sunni Islamic Country in West Africa, while traveling the global trade routes, and ended up being embedded in a group of Muslims who believes the Orishas were prophets and imams whose message had been distorted, and who had been deified when they were merely servants of Allah, and not deities. These Muslims who believe in the orishas were considered heretics, and often fought with leaders and the government of the Sokoto Caliphate. Even though the Aliyites don't worship the Orishas, they have some heretical beliefs, including a belief that Imam Ali is a continuation of the life of Jesus Christ, and that Imam Ali also was the same person as Orisha Ogun, the Orisha of Iron and War. Imam Ali/Orisha Ogun is seen as a figurehead or the face of Aliyite Islam. The Aliyites also believe Orisha Obatala (whom they called Imam ObatAllah) was Jesus Christ too.