Twelver Shiʿism | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

There are two major branches of Islam. After the death of the prophet Muhammad (c. 632 CE), Muslims who followed Abu Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUthman as the temporal and spiritual heads of Islam came to be known as Sunni Muslims. Those following ʿAli and his descendants came to be known as Shiʿite Muslims. Among the Shiʿa, those believing in the twelve imams (spiritual heads of the Muslim faith), beginning with ʿAli and ending with the twelfth imam, are known as Ithna ʿashariyiah or Twelver Shiʿite Muslims. This also contrasts with those who only believe in seven imams—the Ismailis. In both Sunni and Shiʿite Islam, there are traditions attributed to the prophet Muhammad about the day of judgment and the coming of the Mahdi (Rightly Guided One). In the Twelver Shiʿa theology, the Mahdi and the twelfth imam are one and the same. It is thought that when recognized, the Mahdi will be named after the prophet Muhammad and will be a member of the house of the prophet, one who is a direct offspring of Muhammad.

The twelfth imam is the last imam of the Twelver Shiʿite tradition. Like many of the Shiʿa imams, the eleventh imam, Hasan al-Askari (d. 874), was persecuted by the Sunni rulers of his time. The Abbasid caliph Mu'tamid had deported Imam al-Askari from Medina to Samarra (in present-day Iraq) and kept him as a prisoner for much of his short imamate. After Imam al-Askari's death, general confusion erupted among the Shiʿite community because no apparent successor had been appointed by him, nor was he known to have had any sons. As many as twenty factions were formed among the Shiʿa, with each adhering to idiosyncratic beliefs. One faction continued to believe that Imam al-Askari was not dead but in a state of occultation (waiting to reappear to humanity). Similar ideas had risen after the death of the seventh imam, Musa al-Kazim (d. 799 CE). Others claimed that Imam al-Askari was childless. Yet others claimed that he had a son, who was the anticipated Mahdi and who has gone into occultation. They claimed that the five-year-old Mahdi was seen searching for his father near his dwelling place when he entered a cavern and was not seen again.

Although the myth or reality of the twelfth imam cannot be fully determined, the Twelver Shiʿism tradition considers him to have existed, to have been named Muhammad, and to have been a son of the eleventh imam, Hasan al-Askari. It is said that even his mother was not aware of her own pregnancy. The twelfth imam is said to have been in danger of being killed by the Abbasids, who were the rulers of his time, because the Abbasids feared that the emergence of the Mahdi would end their tyrannical rule. In order to create dissent within the Shiʿa ranks, the Abbasids had even supported one of Imam al-Askari's brothers by the name of Jaʿfar as the claimant to the office of the imamate.

It is also held that Imam al-Askari smuggled his son, Muhammad, from Samarra to Medina in 873. During his seven-year imamate, Hasan al-Askari lived in occasional imprisonment, hiding, and dissimulation (taqiyya), a practice of denying of one's faith used by the Shiʿites to protect themselves from the majority Sunni.

The twelfth imam lived in hiding for sixty-nine years, communicating with and guiding the Shiʿa believers through four renowned followers. This period is known as the lesser occultation (874–941 CE). The concept of the safir (ambassador or agent) through whom imams communicated with their followers, had been established by earlier Shiʿite imams. After the death of the fourth ambassador, no other significant leader immediately claimed to be an ambassador or direct communicator with the twelfth imam. Another tradition has it that the fourth ambassador also gave the news of the bodily death of the imam to the believers.

The period from the supposed death of the twelfth imam until the day of his resurrection is known as the greater occultation. Many of the Shiʿa believe that the twelfth imam is living among humanity but is invisible and that he will choose to reveal himself and rid the world of injustice when he deems it an appropriate time.

During the nineteenth century, several prominent figures are considered to have been the twelfth imam. The most prominent were Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsaʿi (1753–1826), Sayyid Kazem Rashti (d. 1844), and Mirza ʿAli Muhammad (1819–1850) of Shiraz, also known as the Bab ("the Gate"). The Bab announced his status in 1844, exactly one thousand lunar years from the lesser occultation of the twelfth imam (260 CE). Later, Mirza ʿAli Muhammad claimed to be the Mahdi and was eventually imprisoned and executed.

Unlike in the Sunni branch of Islam, in Shiʿa clerics are considered more than religiously well-versed people who hold the same status as judges in secular courts. Many Shiʿite Muslims consider their religious figures to speak and deliver judgments in the name of the twelfth imam. This has given substantial powers to Shiʿite clerics. The twelfth imam is also known as the Muntazar (the Expected One), the Hujja (the Proof), the Qaim (the Living), and the Imam al-Zaman (the Imam of Time). Today, the birth of the twelfth imam is celebrated throughout the Shiʿa Muslim world.

Sachedina, Abdulziz A. (1981) Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the Mahdi in Twelver Shi'ism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

This is the complete article, containing 894 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).