ABSTRACT

Generally speaking, a person acknowledged as Mahdi had to be initially recognised as an imam before acquiring that eschatological status, with the implication that no further imams would succeed the Mahdi during his period of occultation. Thus, the Mahdi would be the seal of the imams for that particular Shi'i group. Amongst the Shi'a, the first personality to have been designated as the eschatological Mahdi was Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya, the third son of Imam 'Ali b. Abi Talib, on whose behalf al-Mukhtar successfully launched his own Shi'i movement in southern Iraq. The movement started by al-Mukhtar survived his demise in 67/687; his followers, recognising Ibn al-Hanafiyya as the Imam-Mahdi, soon formed a radical branch of Shi'ism generally designated as the Kaysaniyya. In Ismaili teachings of subsequent times, the eschatological ideas connected with the concept of the hidden imam and his return as the qa'im or Mahdi, especially in reference to a particular Ismaili imam, disappeared almost completely.