Book contents
- Agents of the Hidden Imam
- Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization
- Agents of the Hidden Imam
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Rise of the Agents in the Late Imamate (830–874 ce)
- 2 The Crisis before the Crisis
- 3 Crisis!
- 4 The Agents of the Nāḥiya in the Era of Perplexity
- 5 The Creation of an Envoy
- 6 Rise and Fall
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Other titles in the series
3 - Crisis!
The Mother, the Brother, the Concubine, and the Politics of Inheritance
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2022
- Agents of the Hidden Imam
- Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization
- Agents of the Hidden Imam
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Rise of the Agents in the Late Imamate (830–874 ce)
- 2 The Crisis before the Crisis
- 3 Crisis!
- 4 The Agents of the Nāḥiya in the Era of Perplexity
- 5 The Creation of an Envoy
- 6 Rise and Fall
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Other titles in the series
Summary
analyzes events immediately following the death of the eleventh Imam with no apparent offspring. In spite of his strong claim as son of the tenth Imam, Jaʿfar “the Liar” ultimately failed to succeed to his father. Opposing camps generated anti-Jaʿfar propaganda which survives in our sources and can be used to reconstruct key events and early discourses. It is argued that within twenty-four hours of the eleventh Imam’s death, several events of central symbolism for future understandings of the Occultation had occurred, including funerary rituals for the dead Imam; the claim that one of his concubines was posthumously pregnant with his child; and the dispute over the inheritance of the Imam’s property. These events were related to claims for Imamic mediation including claims made for the mother of the dead Imam, Ḥudayth; servants within the household of the Imam; and the concubine pregnant with the Imam’s child.
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- Agents of the Hidden ImamForging Twelver Shi‘ism, 850-950 CE, pp. 52 - 79Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022