شِيعَة

$ayoEapN * A certain tree, (O, K,) below the stature of a man, having knotted, or jointed, rods, and small, dark-red blossoms, smaller than the jasmine: (O:) the bees feed upon it; (O, K;) and men eat its tender extremities, being rendered healthy, or sound, thereby; ( yataSaH~aHuwna bihi ;) and it has a hot quality in the mouth; and is sweet in odour: (O:) clothes become sweet-scented by adhering to it, (O, K, * TA,) i. e. to its blossom, agreeably with what is said in the “ Book of Plants, ” not to the tree, to which the pronoun refers in the O and K; (TA;) and its honey is clear, (O, K,) very clear, and is well known: it is a pasture; and grows in the plains, and near to seed-produce. (O.)

$iyEapN * A separate, or distinct, party, or sect, (O, K, TA,) of men: this is the primary signification: so called from their agreeing together, and following one another: or, accord. to some, the Y is originally w , and it is from $uw~aEa qawomahu , which means “ he collected his people or party: ” (TA:) the followers and assistants (S, O, Msb, K) of a man: (S, O, K:) any people that have combined in, or for, an affair: (Msb, TA:) accord. to Az, persons who follow, or conform with, one another, [ though ] not all of them agreeing together: (TA:) and any assistant and partisan of a man: (O, TA:) [for] the word is applied to one and to two and to a pl. number and to the male and to the female, (K, TA,) without variation: (TA:) the pl. is $iyaEN and A^a$oyaAEN , (S, * O, Msb, K,) the latter a pl. pl.; (Msb;) and the former is applied to any people, or party, whose affair, or case, is one, who follow one another's opinion. (S.) The saying, in the Kur [xxxiv. last verse], kamaA fuEila biA^a$oyaAEihimo mino qabolu means As was done with the likes of them, of the same persuasion as they, of the peoples that have gone before: (S, * TA:) and similar to this is the saying in the Kur liv. 51. (TA.) ― -b2- Afterwards, Al$~iyEapu became a name of A particular party [or sect ]; (Msb, K;) being predominantly applied to all who took as their friends, or lords, 'Alee and the people of his house: (K:) those who followed 'Alee, saying that he was the [ rightful ] Imám after the Apostle of God, and believing that the office of Imám should not depart from him and his descendants: (KT:) they are an innumerable people, who are innovators; the extravagant zealots among them are the Imámeeyek, who revile the Two Sheykhs [ Aboo-Bekr and 'Omar ]; and the most extravagant of them call the Two Sheykhs disbelievers: some of them rise to the pitch of [ that misbelief which is termed ] Alz~anodaqap [q. v.]. (TA.) [It is also applied to A single person of this party, or sect; agreeably with what has been said above; and such a person is likewise called ↓ $iyaEiY~N : see 5.]