Typology of the Nature of False Claimants in the Middle Centuries of Iranian History (4th-9th Centuries AH)

The issue of false claimants and especially knowing their nature is very important in understanding the history of Iran’s developments. In this regard, this study is descriptive-analytical and poses this fundamental question, what was the nature of the false claimants of prophethood, Imamate and Mahdiism in the middle centuries of Iranian history (4th to 9th centuries AH)? The study has found that in the vast geography of medieval Iran Islamic, Arab Iraq and Ajam Iraq and then Great Khorasan were primarily the origin of false claimants and their supporters, which themselves go back to the political, social, and economic conditions of these regions. The false claimants in the field of social origin mainly belong to the urban society and then to the rural society, which of course can be analyzed from the perspective of the contrasts between the three sides of the city, the village, and the nomads. At the same time, the rule of the tribal-nomadic context with power over a significant part of the history of these centuries has been able to be effective in the mainly urban and rural nature of the claimants and their followers - along with the intellectual abilities and capabilities of the urban and rural communities. From the classoccupational aspect, the false claimants were primarily attributed to scholars and scientists, especially religious scholars, and then to other classes and occupations of society, including judges, ruling bodies and some general classes such as sifting, and they arose from within it. The social base, according to the general abilities, has always been the origins of the religious and intellectual guidance of the Iranian masses and society in the middle centuries of Iran’s history.