Re: Sects of Islam
Those who supported Ali in jamal/siffin were sahaba /tabaeen this is well attested and their names are in all books of rijal their beliefs were neither “sunni” or “12er” in the present sense of the terms.There was no neat classification back to those days and muslims throughout history have had a myriad of beliefs which cannot be neatly classified in 2 groups.
Generally partisans of ALi had a poor opinion of uthman and muawiyah and had a good opinion of Abu Bakr /Umar ( as did the whole community generally speaking) so this position is neither “shia” or “sunni”.There was WIDESREAD condemnation of uthman amongst Ali’s partisans but you will be hard pressed to find a single example of them condemning Abubakr/umar in the same way during ALi’s caliphate or in the time of first 3 imams.
These partisans of ali NEVER praised muawiayh ( except Abu Barazah R.A who only praised the military tactics of muawiyahs commaders) bar those who later sold their loyalties to muawiyah e.g Ziyad b Abih , Ali’s governer who later became a partisan of muawiyah.This sunni defence of muawiayh is a part of "dont ask dont tell " sunni doctrine about early civil wars which was formulated in the post-fitna period as a way of healing rifts of the community torn by civil war.This a political neccesity to recouncile all political groups ( ummayyads, banu hashim, ansar etc).Imami shias since they had their fiqahs evolve at a time when they were the political opposition had no need to take a recounciling view towards their enemies as they didnt have to share power or work with them politically.Its a classical phenomena in politics all radical groups become moderate when they gain power and then they are accuseed by a more radical core of being “counter revolutionaries” .Despite sunnis official position of defending all sahaba ( including muawiyah) the general sunni position is overwhelmingly in favor of ALi.