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" The envoys of the Hidden Imam: Religious institutions and the politics of the Twelver Occultation doctrine "
Edmund Hayes
Lewis, Franklin
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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803672
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| Doc. No
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TL48471
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| Call number
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1731928273; 3724478
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| Main Entry
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Bitar, Noor H.
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| Title & Author
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The envoys of the Hidden Imam: Religious institutions and the politics of the Twelver Occultation doctrine\ Edmund HayesLewis, Franklin
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| College
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The University of Chicago
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| Date
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2015
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| field of study
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Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
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| student score
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2015
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| Page No
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559
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| Note
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Committee members: Qutbuddin, Tahera; Schmidtke, Sabine; Walker, Paul
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| Note
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Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-339-07988-2
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| Abstract
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In 260 AH/ 874 CE, the Eleventh Imam of the Imami Shi`a died, precipitating a succession crisis that was ultimately solved by replacing this line of living, visible leaders with a messianic figure, hidden from humankind who will return at the end of time to rule in peace and justice. This dissertation seeks to answer why this the doctrine of the Occultation of the Twelfth Imam was successful, among all the possible solutions to the crisis in the Imamate that were proposed in the first few years after the death of the Eleventh Imam. I show how the financial-sacral institutions that had increasingly surrounded the Imams and mediated their presence to the community in the pre-Occultation era came to replace the authority of the Imam after 260/874. I analyze the textual sources for the earliest phase of development of Twelver Occultation ideas against the backdrop of the contestation of authority between members of the family of the Imam (especially the mother and brother of the Eleventh Imam) as well as the household retainers of the Imam, and the agents (<i>wakīls</i>) of the financial-sacral system. These contestations clustered around a number of key events, the meaning of which were shifted and erased according to the requirements of later doctrine, but which still leave residual traces throughout our sources. Of particular importance was the succession dispute over the inheritance the Eleventh Imam, claims to which were associated with the spiritual legacy of the Imamate. The success of the Imam’s dissolute brother, Ja`far ‘the Liar’, in winning the inheritance dispute led to a split in the Imami elite between those who followed Ja`far, and the financial agents who opposed Ja`far and claimed to preserve the legacy of the old Imam on behalf of the hidden Twelfth Imam, in particular the obscure agent Hājiz b. Yazīd. A further crisis ensued after the deaths of the old guard. However, quasi-Imamic authority was gradually arrogated to a single pre-eminent representative of the class of financial-sacral agents of the Imam: the so-called ‘Envoy’ (Ar. <i>safīr</i>), Abū Ja`far al-`Amrī (d. 305/917). His authority was contested both by members of the old guard of fiscal agents, and also by charismatic <i>bābs</i> associated with the gnostic tradition.
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| Subject
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Religious history; Islamic Studies
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| Descriptor
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Philosophy, religion and theology;Social sciences;Authority;Doctrine;Imam;Islam;Shi'ism;Tax
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| Added Entry
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Lewis, Franklin
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Near Eastern Languages and CivilizationsThe University of Chicago
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