Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Michael M. J. Fischer, Iran: From 

Religious Dispute to Revolution (Cambridge, Mass.: 

Harvard University Press, 1980); Fazlur Rahman, Islam 

and Modernity: Translation of an Intellectual Tradition

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982); Charles 

Michael Stanton, Higher Learning in Islam: The Classical 

Period, 

a

.

d

. 700–1300 (Savage, Md.: Rowman and Little-

field Publishers, 1990).

Mahdi 

Meaning “one who is rightly guided” in Arabic, 

the Mahdi is a messianic figure who, according to 

some Muslims, will return at the end of time to 

restore Islam to its original perfection.

Although the word Mahdi does not occur in 

the  q

Uran

, it was used from the earliest days of 

Islam as an honorific title: the prophet m

Uham

-

mad

 was called the Mahdi, as was his son-in-law 

Ali, and his grandson 

al

-h

Usayn

. However, it was 

not until the revolt led in the name of Ali’s third 

son, Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, against the 

U

mayyad

  c

aliphate

 (661–750 

c

.

e

.) that the term 

Mahdi began to refer to an expected ruler who 

would usher in J

Udgment

 d

ay

.

Although eventually crushed, Ibn al-Hanafiyya’s 

movement was instrumental in shaping the image 

of the expected Mahdi. Indeed, when his followers 

began insisting that their leader was not dead but 

rather hiding in a transcendent realm from which he 

would one day return to fill the world with 

JUstice

,

they initiated a doctrine that eventually became 

one of the central tenets of Shiism: the occultation 

(

ghayba

) and return (rajaa) of the Mahdi.

The doctrine of occultation and return was 

developed even further after the sudden death of 

Ismail ibn Jaafar (d. 762), who had originally been 

designated the seventh Imam. When Ismail was 

replaced by his younger brother, Musa al-Kazim, a 

small group of Shiis calling themselves the Ismai-

lis refused to accept the new Imam and instead 

claimed that Ismail was alive and in occultation as 

the Hidden Imam, another term for the Mahdi. For 

the majority of Shiis, however, the line of Imams 

continued through Musa until the 12th Imam, 

Muhammad ibn al-Hasan (also known as m

Uham

-

mad

 

al

-m

ahdi

), who himself went into final occul-

tation in 941 

c

.

e

. as the Mahdi. Thus, by the 

middle of the 10th century, a complex apocalyptic 

theology concerning the Mahdi’s second coming 

had become firmly entrenched in Shii 

theology

.

As the doctrine of the Mahdi developed in 

Shiism, the dominant Sunni law schools began 

to distance themselves from the idea, partly in an 

attempt to discourage what was becoming both 

a politically and a socially disruptive theology. 

And yet, to this day there exists a vigorous debate