فصلنامه انتظار موعود
سال پانزدهم شماره 50 (پاییز 1394)

“Kaysanyan” as the first Shite group, who have chosen an objective instance for the Promised in the prophetic Hadiths, are the pioneers of attention to Mahdism amongst other Islamic denominations. Therefore, analyzing the belief in Mahdi and Mahdism among them, with a procedural approach, in a macro view helps the promotion of the evolutionary discussion and studies in Shi’a history. Setting a target for the the current research is drawing the position of believing Mahdi in the thought of Kaysanyan from the beginning to the death of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah, by using the remnants of inter-group works and also the books on history and denominations related to the mentioned subject. The writing ahead examines the belief in Mahdism among this destroyed denomination within this time interval by using the analysis and explication of the obtained data from the most accepted accounts of history and by exploiting the accepted principles in the studies on history and denominations and also providing the rational documented analysis. As we will say Mukhtār was the first person who introduced Muhammad ibn Hanafiyyah as the Shi’a Imam and called him Mahdi. This term later faced a tangible evolution and its literal meaning changed from the guided to Messianism rooted in the traditions by the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Although one cannot attribute all later Kaysanyan’s beliefs to this period; during this period, by paving the way for the Messianic claim about Muhammad ibn Hanafiyyah, the secret organization of Kaysanites emerged, such an organization that the murder of Mukhtār and the allegiance of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah with Abdul Mālik ibn Marwān did not led to its elimination.

Imam Mahdi (A.S)’s name, title, and nickname are of Mahdavi identifiers which have been of interest to scholars from the beginning. This remembrance shows the tangible ups and downs. The quality of this evolution is the question before this investigation. This article- which is organized based on a descriptive-analytic method- while analyzing the content of the traditions in this regard in the books of Hadith of third to the fifth Hijri century has explained the evolution of this topic in order to provide a better understanding of the Messianic traditions in this regard. In this research, we have found although in terms of quantity, the sayings of Hadith books of the third Hijri century place first, the name and the titles of Imam Mahdi (A.S) mentioned in the Hadith books of the fifth Hijri century enjoy a higher frequency percentage in comparison to the books of the other two centuries. This suggests that the authors of the Hadith books of the fifth Hijri century have shown more efforts in order to identify and introduce Imam Mahdi (A.S).

With the passage of prolonged centuries of historical trends of the minor Occultation, changes have occurred in some of the vocabularies of that time, so that it seems some related words have lost their past meaning and are understood differently and of course many of these words have preserved the originality of their concept with the passage of time. Anyway, further analysis and correct recognition of these concepts guide us to a precise understanding of some of the historical concepts. Meanwhile, the components such as “the Twelvers” have been fertile with the passage of time during the minor Occultation and their conceptual originality is preserved. While other concepts such as “absence”, “the message-taker”, and “representative” have lost their past meaning to some extent after the minor Occultation and a different concept is provided for them.

In the study of the biography of the four representatives (of Imam Mahdi (A.S)) in the minor Occultation period, a point that draws the attention of one’s inquiring mind is the inadequacy of Samarri’s biography, the fourth special representative of Imam Mahdi (A.S) in comparison to the other three representatives. Considering the attorneyship status of the four representatives at the minor Occultation period, this question comes to the mind that why it is like this. And most importantly, does the paucity of information do any damage to his attorneyship status? By referring to the library written documents and providing a comprehensive description of the available data about this character, the whyness of paucity of data has been historically analyzed. It has been found that only in relation to the information about his position there is little amount of data and in terms of data related to his life time, no shortage is found in comparison to the other three representatives. Moreover, the shortage of attorneyship data in the timeframe of his responsibility and its related events is analyzable and understood. The last point is that the peace of Samarri’s time and the acceptance of the great issue of complete Absence, without any social challenges among the Twelvers, indicate the high position of the attorneyship of this character.

The “Book of Al-Aousyā” is one of the most important writings of Shalmaghāni (d. 322 AH), the main subject of which is the spiritual leadership and the continuation of the tradition of executorship from the Prophets to the trustees. The attention of Shiite authors toward this book during history, in spite of the deviation that the author was involved with after a period of scientific service, shows the importance of this book. Although till now some researches have been done with regard to this book, the sources used by Shalmaghāni in writing this book have not been investigated yet. Thus, this question remains what sources Shalmaghāni has used in writing the book. Extracting the traditions of the book of “Al-Aousyā” from the available tradition sources and the study and analysis of its documents can determine its sources to some extent. In the current research, which is conducted on the 23 remained traditions of the book of “Al-Aousyā”, it has become clear that he has used sources like Al-Ddalāyel of Abdollah ibn Jafar Homeirie (7 traditions with the most frequency), Al-Mahāsen of Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Khāled Barghie (3 traditions), some of the writings of Sa’d ibn Abdollah Ash’arie (2 traditions), and probably some works like: Masāel Al-Reza, Abu Muhammad Hasan ibn Ali ibn Ziād Al-Washā (1 tradition), Al-Fazāel, Ya Al-Nawāder, Jaber ibn Jo’fie (1 tradition), Al-Mamdouheen wa Al-Mazmoumeen, Muhammad ibn Abdollah ibn Mehrān (1 tradition), wa Al-Wahedah, Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Jomhour (1 tradition).

This research attempts to explain the features of confrontation of Imamates with the false Messianic claimants with the aim to institutionalize the qualitative approach to the issue of false Messianic claimants and evaluates this hypothesis that the method Imamates had in confrontation with the false claimants has features that can be used as a model in the present days against the false claimants. This article is organized with a descriptive-analytic approach and according to the achievement or the result of the research, it is developmental-applicable research and with respect to the type of data used in the research, it is a qualitative research.
Knowing the necessity of discussion about the characteristics of Imamates confrontation with the false Messianic claimants is a starting point which is chosen here to provide a clear picture of the discussion. The results of analysis and the combination of collected data show that “dominance of prevention rather than cure”, “the opportunistic approach toward the threat of false claimants”, “recognition of the doubt-creator from the doubt-possessed”, “firmness in making decisions”, “the organization of Shiites’ social behavior against the false claimants” are among the most important characteristics of Imamates’ confrontation against the claimants.