Imagining the End: Visions of

ex eventu

, the rebellion of  the Pure Soul contributed

richly to the Shi'ite apocalyptic tradition. Indeed, ‘the killing of  the Pure Soul’

became one of  the signs of  the Hour: ‘There are only fifteen nights between

the killing of  the Pure Soul and the rising of  the Qa'im.’

78

 Further, ‘Five [are

the signs] before the rising of  the Qa'im: the Yamani [presumably the Qahtani],

the Sufyani, the caller who calls from the sky [sometimes identified as Gabriel],

the swallowing in the desert, and the killing of  the Pure Soul.’

79

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117

Messianism, Millennialism and Revolution

Although the head of  the Husaynid branch of  the 'Alids, Ja'far al-Sadiq,

denied his Hasanid cousins’ claim, and reportedly asserted that he himself

had inherited the sword and the armour of  the Prophet from his grandfather

and was holding them in his house,

80

 he was apparently not able to prevent

his own sons from joining in the uprising of  the Pure Soul. Ja'far’s son, Musa

al-Kazim (d.

 

), is reported among the participants, and in fact learned to

harness its persisting political messianism to longer-term designs of  his own,

albeit more subtly. Musa al-Kazim competed in clandestine political activism

with the surviving Zaydis followers of  his cousin, the Pure Soul. There is

ample evidence in the early Shi'ite books on sects to prove that he followed

the example of  the latter in claiming to be the Qa'im-Mahdi, although the

Imami compendia of  tradition have systematically expunged the traces of  this

claim. His father, Ja'far, the Sixth Imam, is reported as saying that ‘the

Seventh [Imam] of  yours will be your Qa'im’, and has the same name as the

bringer of  the Torah (i.e. Moses). Musa is further likened to Jesus by his

father in the same group of  traditions.

81

 Ja'far is also reported to have testified:

‘He is the (divinely-)guided redresser (

al-qa'im al-mahdi

); if  [you see] his

head rolling toward you from the mountain, do not believe it, for he is your

lord (

sahib

), the Qa'im.’

82

 The Karbiyya, the Kaysani sub-sect to which the

above-mentioned idea of  the occultation of  Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya is

attributed, appear to have joined Musa.

83

 If  so, they may have brought with

them the apocalyptic idea of  occultation which was anyway available through

other channels as well. Caliph Harun al-Rashid imprisoned Musa in 



; he

was released and then imprisoned for a second time. His two periods of

imprisonment gave rise to the idea, circulated by his followers, that the Qa'im

would have two occultations, a short one followed by a longer one extending

to his rising. Several groups of  Musa’s followers who became known as the

Waqifiyya (cessationists) refused to accept that he had died, and/or maintained

instead that he was the Qa'im and the Mahdi and had gone into occultation.

84

One group emphasized his likeness to Jesus and, while admitting his death,

expected his Second Coming.

85

 Others maintained that he was in occultation

(his namesake Moses, too, had been in occultation)

86

 and would return as the

Qa'im-Mahdi. Even one sceptical group prepared to give some credence to

the evidence of  their eyes (the Caliph had displayed Musa’s corpse prom-

inently on a bridge in Baghdad), suspended judgment on his death ‘because

of  numerous undeniable traditions proving that he was the Qa'im-Mahdi’.

87

The Waqifiyya constituted the most important channel for the direct trans-

mission of  apocalyptic beliefs, most notably the idea of  occultation, to Imami

(Twelver) Shi'ism, as the leading figures in the movement later rejoined the

Imami fold under the Eighth Imam, 'Ali al-Rida.

88

After the suppression of  the uprising of  the Hasanid Mahdi, the second

---

118

Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Abbasid Caliph, Abu Ja'far, appropriated from the Mahdist repertoire the

titles of the Mansur (helper [of the Mahdi]), the Mahdi (rightly-guided) and

the Hadi (the one who guides), adopting them as regnal titles for himself, his

son and his grandson. Thereafter, the containment of  political messianism

under the Abbasid Caliphate took the formulaic statement that the progeny of

'Abbas would rule the world until the end of  time when they would transfer

sovereignty to the Mahdi or to Jesus.

89

 By contrast, the containment of  political

messianism in sectarian Twelver Shi'ism took a hierocratic direction.

After the death of  the Eleventh Imam, two of  the fourteen groups into

which the Imami Shi'a had split took up the ideas of  the Waqifiyya. One

splinter group argued that, as a childless imam cannot die and leave the world

devoid of  proof  (

hujja

) of  God, the Eleventh Imam, Hasan al-'Askari, had

not died but had gone into occultation. He was the Qa'im-Mahdi, and would

have two occultations.

90

 In the course of  the next two decades, these neo-

Waqifite ideas were adopted in modified form by the leadership of  the nascent

Imami hierarchy. 'Uthman b. Sa'id al-'Amri, and his son, Muhammad, who

had been the agents of  the Tenth and Eleventh Imams, remained in control

of  the seat of  the Imam after the latter’s death, and claimed to be acting on

behalf  of  a son of  Hasan al-'Askari, who was in occultation. A number of

decrees and rescripts purporting to emanate from the Imam in 

ghayba

 were

issued in the handwriting of  Muhammad b. 'Uthman over a period of  two

decades. When this communication ceased, the neo-Waqifite notion of  the

two occultations was drawn upon to explain the breakdown of  communication

between the hidden Imam and the community. Muhammad b. 'Uthman al-

'Amri’s close associate, Abu Sahl al-Nawbakhti, adopted the idea of  the two

occultations for announcing the beginning of  a new stage, the second and the

harder occultation: ‘For him, there are two occultations, one of  them harder

than the other.’

91

Thus, at the beginning of  the tenth/fourth century, the nascent Imami

Shi'ite hierocracy thus de-apocalypticized the idea of  occultation. In the same

period, the above-mentioned political oracle of  the twelve Caliphs from the

Quraysh was turned into an