Muhammad Al-Mahdi - Historicity of Muhammad Al-Mahdi

Historicity of Muhammad Al-Mahdi

The historical existence of the twelfth imam has been long debated since the death of eleventh Imam. Even though Shi’ite Scholars admit that the Twelfth Imam is an actual person, the Eleventh Imam, Hasan al-Askari, was kept more or less a prisoner by the Abbasids in the camp at Samarra, about 100 kilometres north of Baghdad, and died there in 874 A.D at the age of twenty-eight. It appears that none of the Shi'i notables knew of the existence of the son of eleventh Imam. The only possible occasion the son of eleventh Imam is said to made a public appearance was at the time of his death, then as a child and the boy was seen no more.

It was believed that the twelfth Imam was connected to his community through four agents, giving his commands via letter; Momen doubts the historical accuracy of these accounts, mentioning that there is no indication that the number of agents was limited to four and several others are mentioned. It seems likely that after the death of the eleventh Imam, for the duration of a natural lifespan (i.e. seventy years) this system had continued to operate. The brother of eleventh Imam remained firm in his assertion that his brother had no progeny and there were legal dispute over the ownership of his bother’s estate with the supposed agents.

Henry Corbin in contrast believed that the question of historicity is irrelevant admitting that the idea of the hidden Imam was shaped around the person of twelfth and considering the extensive body of literature about him, saw the birth and his occultation as archetypal and symbolic, describing it as “sacred history”. In his History of Islamic Philosophy He writes: “..The simultaneity of these (birth and occultation) is rich in meanings from the mystical point of view… here above all, our approach should be that of the phenomenologist: we must discover the aims of Shi’ite awareness..”.