INTRODUCTION
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Introduction and survey of the sources 1. Introduction
The last safir announced on his death-bed in 329/941 that the twelfth Imam had decided not to appoint another safir and had entered into total occultation. The Imamites considered this declaration the beginning of the twelfth Imam's second occultation, which has continued until the present time. Because of the second occultation the series of Imam stopped at the number twelve. Accordingly the Imamites believe that the twelfth Imam is al-Qaim ("he who will rise"), whose rising was promised by the Prophet. For the Prophet is said to have predicted that a descendant of his daughter Fatima would rise with the sword and fill the world with justice and equity. For this reason the Imamites believe that he is still alive, but in a state of occultation until the moment of his rising at an unspecified time in the future. Since the first half of the fourth/tenth century many scholars have examined the occultation of the twelfth Imam purely from the theological point of view, even through this event appears to have been historical. However, because of the close connection between the occultation and the Imamate (al-Imama) or the religious and political leadership, it became involved with Shi'ite theological discussions and gradually its historical aspects came to be ignored. Thus modern scholars like Ignaz Goldziher, Margoliouth, Snouck Hurgronje and Darmesteter were inclined to study the occultation of the twelfth Imam as a theological phenomenon and tried to trace its pre-Islamic origins. The present inquiry is an attempt to study the historical background and circumstances of the occultation of the twelfth Imam. The Imamites had political ambitions to obtain political power under the leadership of an Imam called al-Qaim bi-l-sayf (the on who will rise with the sword). This study tries to examine the role of these ambitions in his occultation and to trace as well the evolution of the underground Imamite organization (al-Wikala) and its role during the time of the twelfth Imam's short occultation. It is essential to make a survey of the main sources of this study so that the viewpoint of each of them can b understood and the information they contain evaluated accordingly.
2.1. Books on the question of Ghayba It is indeed an old idea in Imamite history that one Imam from the progeny of the Prophet would go into hiding to prepare for the day when he would rise again under the title al-Qa'im al-Mahdi and fill the world with justice. The concealment (al-Ghayba) was considered a sign of the true al-Qa'im al-Mahdi, and both before and after the occultation of the twelfth Imam in 260/874> Many Shi'ite writers collected traditions attributed to the Prophet and the Imams concerning this issue. These traditions were used by many Shi'ite groups to back up the claims of their leaders who aspired to power by adopting the title of al-Qa'im al-Mahdi. Before 260/874 they were used even by some Imamites themselves as evidence that one or another of their deceased Imams was in fact al-Qa'im al-Mahdi. Finally the same traditions have been used by the Imamites to support their claims that the twelfth Imam was al-Qa'im al-Mahdi himself. These works on the subject of the Ghayba can be divided into three groups based on the dates of their authorship. 2.1.1.
Books on the question of the occultation written before 260/874 The
Waqifa 2. Al-Ta'i al-Tatari, 'Ali b. al-Hasan, was a companion of the seventh Imam, al-Kazim (d. 183/799), whom he named as the hidden Imam. In defence of his view he wrote Kitab al-Ghayba, which became the framework for the works of later Waqifite authors like Ibn Suma'a (d. 263/877) on this issue. 3 3. Al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. Suma'a, composed a book on al-Ghayba, following the footsteps of his Waqifite teacher al-Ta'i al-Tatari.4 However, those Imamites who lived during the period from 260/329 / 874-940-1, like al-Hasan al-Saffar 9d. 292/904) and al-Kulayni (d. 329/940, used his information to support their claim that the hidden Imam was not the seventh Imam but the twelfth Imam.5 ii)
The Zaydites iii)
The Imamites 2. In his work on the subject of al-Ghayba called al-Mashyakha, al-Hasan b. Mahbub al-Sarrad (d. 224/838) records several anecdotes which are often attributed to the Imams. This work has been lost but several quotations from it are included in the available Imamite sources. 3. Al-Fadl b. Shadhan al-Nisaburi (d. 260/873) was a well-known Imamite scholar and secured the trust and the praise of the eleventh Imam. He also compiled a book called al-Ghayba, 7 but most of its material seems to have been quoted from the work of al-Hasan b. Mahbub.8 Since al-Fadl died two months before the death of the eleventh Imam in 260/874, the importance of his work lies in the traditions he recorded indicating that the twelfth Imam would be al-Qa'im. Many later writers like al-Tusi in his own work entitled al-Ghayba, relied on al-Fad's work. Baha' al-Din al-Nili (d. 790/1388) also compiled a work entitled al-Ghayba by summarizing al-Fadl's work.9 Despite the fact that the actual work of al-Fadl is lost, the works Kifayat al-Muhtadi fi Ma'rifat al-Mahdi by Mirlawhi (d. 12th/18th century) and Kashf al-Astar by Mirza Husayn al-Nuri (d. 1320/1902) seems to be copies of his work. 10 Therefore it is not unreasonable to make use of these later sources for our present purposes. 2.1.2.
Books on the Question of the Ghayba written between the years 260/329/874-941
2.1.3.
Books on the question of the Ghayba written after 329/941. 1. Al-Nu'mani, Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. Jafar, know as Ibn Abi Zaynab, was a native of the town of Nu'maniyya, one of the districts of Wasit. He moved to Baghdad where he was educated in Hadith transmission under the supervision of al-Kulayni (d. 329/940) and Ibn 'Uqda (d. 333/944). He then went to Syria where he died around the year 360/970. Because of the confusion which had spread amongst the Shi'ites after the death of the eleventh Imam, al-'Askari, in the year 260/874, al-Nu'mani wrote a book entitled al-Ghayba. He tried to prove the necessity of the twelfth Imam's occultation by relating traditions on the authority of the Prophet and the Imams predicting its occurrence. He acquired most of is information from early authors who wrote on this subject, irrespective of their doctrinal views. Among such early authors are al-Hasan b. Mahbub, and Imamite (d. 224/838), al-Fadl b. Shadhan, an Imamite (d. 260/873), al-Hasan b. Suma'a, a Waqifite (d. 263/877), Ibrahim b. Ishaq al-Nahawandi, an extremist (d. 286/899), al-Kulayni, an Imamite (d. 329/940), the well-known Zaydite jurist Ibn 'Uqda (d. 333/944), and al-Mas'udi (d. 345/956).13 Al-Nu'mani's outstanding contribution was that he was the first compiler after al-Mas'udi (d. 345/956) to give an interpretation of those traditions attributed to the Imams by al-Kulayni, which indicated that al-Qa'im would have two occultations, the first short and the second long. Al-Nu'mani stated that the first occultation was the period of the four representatives of the twelfth Imam, lasting from the year 260/874 until the year 329/940-1, and that the second began after the death of the fourth safir in 329/941. 14 Some of his remarks reflect how the complete occultation of the twelfth Imam threw the Imamites into confusion and caused a massive decrease in there numbers. His interpretation became the basis for all later Imamite works on this subject. 2. Muhammad b. 'Ali b. Babawayh, who is better know as al-Saduq (d. 381/991), wrote a book on the question of the Ghayba entitled Kamal al-Din was Tamam al-Ni'ma. The information contained in this work is valuable because al-Saduq relied on the Shi'ite primary sources (al-Usul) which had been compiled before 260/874.15 Thus we find that he often reforces to the authors al-Hasan b. Mahbub, al-Fadl b. Shadhan, al-Hasan b. Suma'a, al-Saffar, al-Himyari and his own father, Ibn Babawayh,16 who had close ties with the third and fourth safirs of the twelfth Imam. Because his father was an eminent jurist and the Imam's agent in Qumm, al-Saduq was able to give reliable information regarding the underground communications between the agents in Qumm; al-Saduq was able to give reliable information regarding the underground communications between the agents and the Imam via his four safirs. However, a study of the chain of transmitters (isnad) of some of his reports concerning the birth of the twelfth Imam indicates that al-Saduq obtained his information from extremists such as Muhammad b. Bahr. Consequently, one must be careful in using these reports. 3. Muhammad b. Muhammad b. al-Numan, who is known as al-Mufid (d. 413/1022), was at one time the leader of the Imamites. During this time the question of the occultation began to penetrate theological discussions. Hence he wrote five articles indigence of the occultation of the twelfth Imam and also compiled and independent work entitled al-Fusul al-'Ashara fi al-Ghayba. Despite the dogmatic approach of this work, it records valuable information concerning the historical circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the twelfth Imam before 260/874. Al-Mufid also presents an exposition similar to that of al-Nawbakhti and Sa'd al-Qummi putting forward the fifteen different views held by the Imamites after 260/874. Al-Mufid bore witness of the disappearance of all fifteen groups by 373/983, except the Twelvers who believed that their leader was the twelfth Imam and that he was in concealment. In his book al-Irshad, al-Mufid follows the method employed by al-Kulayni and al-Nu'mani in the narration of Hadith, first of all by proving the existence of the twelfth Imam and then by vindicating the prolongation of his age beyond the life-span of an ordinary person. 4. After al-Mufid his two eminent pupils 'Ali b. al-Husayn, better know as al-Murtada (d. 436/1044), and Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Karajaki (d. 449/1057), followed his rational approach in their treatises on the prolongation of the twelfth Imam's concealment. This approach is clear in the extant article of al-Murtada which was published in Baghdad in 1955 under the title Masa'la wajiza fi al-Ghayba and translated into English by Sachedina.17 In 427/1035 al-Karajaki compiled a work entitled al-Burhan 'ala Sihhat Tul 'Urm al-Imam Sahib al-Zaman, in which he mentions many people whose ages hand been prolonged beyond the life-span of an ordinary person. His aim in this was to prove, like al-Saduq and al-Mufid before him, that the prolongation of the twelfth Imam's life during his occultation was not an extraordinary phenomenon. On account of the dogmatic approach of these two works they are devoid of any historical information concerning the actual career of the twelfth Imam between the years 260-329/874-941. 5. The well-know Imamite scholar Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Tusi (d. 460/1067) deals with the question of the Ghayba of the twelfth Imam in most of his dogmatic works. But the most important of these is Kitab al-Ghayba, in which he makes use of both tradition and reason to prove that the twelfth Imam was al-Qa'im al-Mahdi, and that he must be in a state of occultation. Through his refutation of the other Shi'ite claims, which held that 'Ali b. Abi Talib (d. 41/661), Ibn al-Hanafiyya (d. 84/703), al-Sadiq (d. 148/765), Muhammad b. Isma'il, and al-Kazim (d. 183/799) were al-Qaim and that they were in hiding, he suggests that the traditions concerning the occultation go back to the time of 'Ali. Al-Tusi also provides reliable historical information on the underground activities of the four representatives of the twelfth Imam, quoting from a missing book entitled Ahab al-Wukala al-Arba'a by Ahmad b. Nuh al-Basir. Al-Tusi's work became the main source for all the later Imamite writers regarding the concealment of the twelfth Imam, particularly al-Majlisi (d. 1111/1699) in his work Bihar al-Anwar. A contemporary of al-Kulayni was Abu al-Qasim al-Balkhi, a Mu'tazilite, who died around the year 301-913. He held that the eleventh Imam had died and heirless and gave expression to these opinions in his work al-Mustarshid, which is a refutation of Ibn Qubba's book, al-Insaf. Unfortunately his work has been lost. However judging by the quotations recorded in the book al-Mughni by al-Qadi 'Abd al-Jabbar (d. 415/1024), it appears that al-Balkhi relied on al-Hasan al-Nawbakhti (d. ca. 310/922) for information concerning the divisions among the Imamites after the year 260/874. 18 As for al-Ash'ari (d. 324/935), he depended on al-Balkhi for his information about the Imamites. In fact after al-Ash'ari's conversion to the group of Ahl al-Hadith, later to be the Sunnites, his books became the main source for the later Sunnite writers, such as al-Baghdadi (d. 429/1037) in his work al-Farq bayn al-Firaq,19 the writer Ibn Hazm (d. 453/1063) in his work al-Fasl fi al-Milal wa-l-Ahwa wa-l-Nihal and later al-Shahristani (d. 548/1153) in his work al-Milal wa-l-Nihal.20 However the information contained in the later works concerning the Imamite schisms after the death of al-'Askari is so far removed from the original exposition of al-Balkhi and al-Nawbakhti that one has to be careful about relying upon it. 2.2 The
Biographical Works 1. The first
is Ma'rifat al-Naqilin 'an al-A'imma al-Sadiqin, compiled by Muhammad
b. 'Umar al-Kashshi. He was a native of the town of Kashsh near Samarqand,
where he was brought up under the auspices of the Imamite scholar Muhammad
b. Mas'ud al-Samarqandi and where he spent the whole of his life. According
to al-Tusi he died in 368/978.21
Al-Kashshi quoted his information from fifty-three narrators, but his
main source was 'Ali b. Muhammad b. Qutayba of Nishapur,22
who was contemporary with the short occultation and had close ties with
the agents of the twelfth Imam in Khurasan. Ibn Qutayba provides important
information concerning the evolution of the underground organization of
the Imamites (al-Wikala) after al-Sadiq (d. 148/765) and the reason behind
the rise of the Waqifite groups after the death of the seventh Imam in
183/799. Al-Kashshi's work became an important source for later Imamite
scholars like al-Tusi (d. 460/1067), who summarised it and gave it the
title Ikhtiyar Ma'rifat al-Rijal. 4. The fourth Imamite work on al-Rijal is Fihrist Asma' Musannifi al-Shia', which was written by Ahmad b. 'Ali al-Najashi (d. 450/1058), a native of Kufa. He received his Shi'ite education there and then moved to Baghdad, where he was one of the leading Imamite scholars along with al-Murtada (d. 436/1044). His residing in these two cities enabled him to establish close contact with forty-five Imamite scholars who had in their possession documents related to the period of the short occultation. These documents cast light on the different ranks within the Imamite organization and provide useful information on works on the Ghayba compiled before and after 260/874. Al-Barqi (d. 278/891), in his work on al-Rijal, provides valuable reports concerning the relationship between the Imams and their followers in particular the tenth and eleventh Imams, since he was their contemporary. Despite the fact that the work of al-Dhahabi (d. 748/1347) entitled Mizan al-I'tidal is a later source, it contains some reports which elucidate the background of the Ghayba and its connection with the rise of al-Qa'im. 2.3 The
books of general history |