The Imam's return: Messianic leadership in late medieval Shiʿsm

Authors

Shahzad Bashir, Carleton College, United StatesFollow

Document Type

Book Chapter

Edition

1st

ISBN

9780195137996

Editor

Linda S. Walbridge

Publication (Name of Journal)

The Most Learned of the Shiʿa: The Institution of the Marjaʿ Taqlid

Department

Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, London

DOI

10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195137996.003.0003

Publisher

Oxford University Press

City

New York

Abstract

Although a majority of Shiʼi intellectual activity in the period of occultation (ghayba) has been carried out by scholars primarily categorized as mujtahids, there have also been individuals who have considered themselves divinely inspired beyond the capacity of ordinary persons, and at the same level as the Shiʼi Imams. One such category comprised those who claim to be the Mahdi, a designation reserved exclusively for the Twelfth Imam in normative Twelver Shiʿism. Being a Mahdi in a Shiʼi context necessarily requires going beyond traditional belief since the claimant has to argue against the very basis of the idea of twelve uniquely guided Imams who, according to the religion's orthodoxy, has already existed in history. Conversely, however, it is crucial for a Mahdi to access the charisma inscribed in traditions regarding the Twelfth Imam in order to acquire spiritual and political power through the claim. This tension, endemic to the situation of a Mahdi rising from a Twelver milieu, marks the claimant as one who is the gravest transgressor against accepted dogma while simultaneously being an embodiment of Shiʿism's greatest hope. It is understandable, then, that a self-proclaimed Mahdi such as Muhammad Nurbakhsh considered jurists, the guardians of traditional religion, to be his foes, as reflected in the preceding quote. This chapter illustrates the mechanics of the messianic claim as a paradigm of leadership in medieval Shiʿism by reviewing the history and thought of two 15th-century Mahdis. The careers of Muhammad b. Falah Musha'shaʼ (d. 1462) and Muhammad Nurbakhsh belong to the history of western and central Asia (present:day Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan), and their thought fits into a general pattern of heterodox religious activity characteristic of the period.

Comments

This work was published before Shahzad joined Aga Khan University.

Recommended Citation

Bashir, S. (2021). The Imam's return: Messianic leadership in late medieval Shiʿsm. The Most Learned of the Shiʿa: The Institution of the Marjaʿ Taqlid, 21-33.
Available at: https://ecommons.aku.edu/book_chapters/577