The history and origin of Aliyite Islam

Aliyite Islam, also called Aliyiyism or Al-'Aliyiyyah (العليئية), is a Zaydi Shia and Sufi Islamic belief that syncrecitizes Sufi Islamic, Zaydi Shia Islamic, and Ifa religious beliefs. The origins of the Aliyite Sufi Tariqa are not exactly known, but Aliyiyism has existed since atleast the mid-1700s in the land of the Yoruba people and around the lands the Mali Empire would come to control. By 1804, Danfodio dounded the Mali Empire, also called the Sokoto Caliphate, which introduced more strict interpretations of Islam and cracked down on Aliyite Islam in West Africa, claiming it was a heresy and akin to paganism. Because of the enslavement of West African people in the USA, Aliyite Islam survived in North America. Today, Aliyite Islam is mostly practiced by the Ethnic Qarsherskiyan Tribe, although it originated in Nigeria and the Qarsherskiyan Aliyites emphasize that Aliyite Islam is not an ethnoreligion. Through outreach programs called Dawah, Aliyite Islam is behinning to spread in some parts of Brazil and has been accepted by a few members of the Lumbee and Melungeon tribes, which are two other Sweetgum Kriyul tribes. Many Aliyite Muslims accept Zaydi Sufi pluralistic sheikh Imam Mehdi Razvi as one of their official Zaydi Imams and some of Imam Mehdi Razvi's followers in Germany have became Aliyites. A few pockets of Aliyite communities exist in the Yoruba communities of Nigeria still today, with many practicing the early form of Aliyite Islam before Aliyiyism adopted Zaydi Islamic cosmology and theology and imams.