What if the Rashidun Caliphate had won the First Fitna? How would things be different?
What do you mean? Ali retains the Caliphate?
No, I was not implying that the Abbasids were Shi'a, I was actually taking for granted that they were not, even though loose Alidism was part of their earliest base of support, as you say, on the basis of shared opposition to the Umayyads.@Falecius I would agree to this answer! However, do you mean to say the Abbasids were Shi’a? Alliance in dislike of the Umayyad is a separate issue to legitimately be of the Shi’a even in a loose sense. Khawarij and Shi’a frequently aligned together in revolt as part of anti-Syrian politics, yet they are diametrically opposed to each other independently (the Zanj revolt exemplified how the Zanj suffered from Khawarij-Shi’a sectarianism).