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The most important sect, or group of sects, of the Shiʿites was (ii.) the faction which recognised Husayn as the third Imam, and his son, ʿAli Zayn al-Abidin (d. 94 A.H.) as his successor, the son of the Imam and of the royal princess of Persia. But at al-Abidin’s death this party split into two, some following his son Zayd (d. 121), others his son Muhammad al-Bakir (d. 113). The former or Zaydite party established itself for a considerable period in North Persia, and still maintains itself in South Arabia. Zayd himself was the friend and pupil of the Muʿtazilite or rationalist leader Wasil ibn ʿAta, and the Zaydites have generally been regarded as more or less free thinkers. The majority of the Shiʿites, however, recognised Muhammad al-Bakir as the fifth Imam, and after his death Jaʿfar as-Sadiq (d. 148) as the sixth, though here again there was a schism, some regarding Abu Mansur, another son of Muhammad al-Bakir, as the sixth Imam. Abu Mansur seems to have been one of the first ʿAlids to endorse the divine rights claimed for them by their followers, and did so in an extreme form, asserting that he had ascended to heaven and obtained supernatural illumination. At this time all the extremer Shiʿites regarded the Imam as an incarnation of the Divine Spirit passed on from ʿAli, and many believed that ʿAli was the true prophet of God whose office had been fraudulently intercepted by Muhammad.