The Kaysanites (Arabic: كيسانية, romanized: Kaysāniyya) were a Shi'i sect of Islam that formed from the followers of Al-Mukhtar.
Similarly, it may be named after Abu Amra Kaysan, a prominent mawālī and chief of al-Mukhtar’s personal bodyguard.
Hashimiyya, named after Abu Hashim), which comprised the majority of the Kaysanites was the earliest Shi'ite group whose teachings and revolutionary stance were disseminated in Persia, especially in Greater Khorasan, where it found adherents among the Mawalis and Arab settlers.
In Iraq they joined Ja'far al-Sadiq or Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, who were then the main Alid claimants to the Imamate.
However, with the demise of the activist movement of al-Nafs az-Zakiyya, Ja'far al-Sadiq emerged as their main rallying point.