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SOME NOTES on the HISTORY of the TWELVERS the “Twelvers SOME NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF THE TWELVERS The “Twelvers”, called in Arabic and Persian the Ithna{ashariyya1 (an adjective which implies umma ‘community, congregation’), are so called because they follow the twelfth imam, Muhammad ibn Îasan, whose epithet ‘al-Mahdi’ indicates that his followers expect him to return incarnate to earth at the end of times to defeat the enemies of God, destroy paganism and establish God's kingdom2. Here follows a complete list of the twelve imams, as it is given in the textbooks of the Ithna {ashariyya scholars themselves3. 1. {Ali ibn Abi ™alib, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet of Islam. {Ali's epithet is Abu'l A}imma ‘Father of Divine Leaders’4. With Muhammad's daughter Fa†ima he had two sons, Îasan and Îusayn, both of whom are recognized as imam by all the Shi{a. {Ali was assassi- nated in the year 40/660 by Ibn Muljam's poisoned sword. He was buried near his residence Kufa, where a new town, Najaf, grew up which became a centre of pilgrimage in the time of Harun al-Rashid; it is sur- rounded by a cemetery. 2. Îasan ibn {Ali was recognized as the second imam after Ali's death, but he had neither the power nor the will to assert his authority, as the Shi{a was still a small party in its beginning. He died in 50/670 (the date is disputed) probably poisoned by his wife Al-Ja{da, instigated, it is said, by Mu{awiya or Yazid5. Îasan, through his second son Îasan II, became ancestor of many of the rulers of Morocco, including the present royal dynasty. 3. Îasan's brother Îusayn was recognized as the Third Imam; he was undoubtedly the most loved of all the Prophet's descendants. Îusayn was killed in the battle of Kerbela}, against the soldiers of Yazid in the year 60/680. His death has been celebrated in many books and 1 See the Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. IV, sub Ithna{ashariyya. 2 See Some Notes on the Pilgrimage of the Ithna{ashari Branch of the Shi{a, in Orien- talia Lovaniensia Periodica 20, 1989, p. 250-252. (Henceforth referred to as ‘Notes’). 3 The majority of these scholars remain anonymous. See for their works the list in my Notes (see above), p. 253. 4 See the Encyclopaedia of Islam (EI), vol. I, p. 381-6. 5 See EI, vol. III, p. 240-3. For Hasan's descendents see op. cit., sub Alids and Idrisids, and Edmund BOSWORTH, The Islamic Dynasties, Edinburgh University Press 1967, p. 20-21. 238 J. KNAPPERT poems; it is still commemorated by millions on the 10th day of the month MuÌarram ({Ashura}), as a day of mourning6. 4. The fourth imam was Îusayn's only surviving son (the others had died in the battle) {Ali Zayn al {Abidin, ‘Ornament of the Worshippers’, from whom all other imams descend in the direct male line. He was found as a sick infant on the battlefield at Kerbela} by the Syrian sol- diers, and carried to the Omayyad capital Damascus. The caliph Yazid wished to dispose of him but, according to a later legend, “God resur- rected {Ali who threatened the usurper (Yazid) to let the child go to Medina in peace with his female relatives. Yazid, frightened, sent the entire family back to Medina”. Zayn al {Abidin died there in 95/714, after a life of scholarship and devotion7. 5. The fifth imam was his son MuÌammad Baqir ‘The one who opens the Source of Knowledge’. He too was a scholar; he died 115/7348. 6 EI, vol. III, sub Îusayn b. Ali; HEMEDI BIN ABDALLAH AL-BUHRIY, Utenzi wa Sayid- ina Husein bin Ali, Dar es Salaam 1965; ‘The Martyr of Karbala’ by MAHMOUD AYYOUB in Alserat, Selected Articles, publ. Muhammadi Trust London 1983 p. 87-101. There are numerous Arabic booklets and pamphlets, printed in Cairo, Beyrut, Karachi and Bombay, with the title Qatl Îusayn or Maqtal Îusayn, describing the tragic events in vivid coulours, in prose and in poetry; some are in Persian, e.g. Makhzan al-Ash{ar dar Manaqib va MaÒa}ib e-A}immah al-A†har, printed in Tehran, no date, or in Urdu: QaÒa}id dar Bayan e-Shahadat ÎaÂrat Imam Îusayn (no place, no date). See also J. Knappert, Al-Husayn, the Ideal Hero in Swahili Epic, in Al-Serat Vol. V, no. 3, p. 3-13. Îusayn was married, according to the Shi{a tradition, to Shahrbanu, daughter of Yazdigard III, last Sassanian king of Iran, see J. Knappert, Islamic Legends, Leiden, 1985, vol. I, p. 302-306. For the massacre at Kerbela see ib. p. 284 et seq. See also the EI, vol. I, sub Ahl al-Bayt and vol. IV sub Karbala. The EI is silent regarding the celebration of {Ashura in Iran, but see SYED HUSAIN ALI JAFFRI, Muharram Celebrations in India, in Peter J. CHELKOWSKI, ed., Ta{ziyeh: Ritual and Drama in Iran, New York 1979, p. 223; JA{FAR SHARIF, Islam in India or the Qanoon-i-Islam, transl. G.A. Herklots, London 1972: the plate facing p. 156 shows the structure of the mausoleum which was built over Îusayn's tomb at Ker- bela, and which was later destroyed by the Ottoman sultan Suleman in 1534 as heretical. See my ‘Notes’ (see above) p. 248 for a description of the new mosque that has been built there since then by Shah Abbas of Iran when he liberated Kerbela in 1032/1623. It suf- fered very serious damage when the troops of Saddam Îusein took the town at the end of the Gulf War and killed many of the Shi{a. 7 See EI IV, p. 277 & 638; Anon. The Necessity of Imamat, publ. by Peermahomed Ebrahim Trust Karachi 1971, p. 39-40. With Ali Zayn al {Abidin the imamate becomes esoteric in the sense that there cannot have been an explicit appointment by Husayn to raise this son to the status of his successor (Khalifa), since Îusayn was killed without foreseeing it, and {Ali was only a baby, and the youngest son, not then expected to suc- ceed or even to survive. See for the imamate: EI III, p. 1163; The Necessity of Imamate (see above), p. 5; SYED HUSAIN M. JAFRI in SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR, ed., Islamic Spiritu- ality Foundation, New York 1987, p. 165 et seq. 8 It was during his imamate that the number of followers of the Shi{a greatly increased owing to the growing corruption and worldliness of the Omayyad caliphs. Little is known THE HISTORY OF THE TWELVERS 239 6. The sixth imam was his son Ja{far (Djaafar) aÒ-Sadiq ‘the Truth- ful’, born at Medina in 80/700; his mother was Umm Farwa. He was the last imam to be recognized by all the branches of the Shi{a; he died in Medina where he was also buried in 148/765. Ja{far contributed positively to the early doctrine of the Shi{a and was acknowledged as a philosopher and great scholar. He appointed his eldest son Isma{il as his successor, but Isma}il died while Ja{far was still alive9. Some of the followers later believed that Isma{ il was not dead but only concealed by God for the awaiting of His purpose. 7. The seventh imam, according to the Ithna{ashariyya, was Musa al-KaÂim ‘Who controls his wrath’, third son of Ja{far after his second son {Abdallah had died soon after Isma{il. By this time the Shi{a com- munity had grown into an important political party (even though it was already ramifying into three factions), so that the Abbasid caliphs, recently (133/750) established in Iraq, began to persecute the Shi{a. Musa was imprisoned in a dark prison in Baghdad. He died in 183/79910. 8. {Ali ibn Musa, with the epithet al-Ri∂a (usually spelled ar-Reza) ‘God's pleasure’, was born in Medina in 153/770 or a little earlier according to others. He died in ™us in Iran in 203/818; he was known for his piety and learning. In 201/816 the Abbasid Al-Ma}mun sum- moned {Ali to Marw in what is now Turkmenia where he acknowledged {Ali as heir to the caliphate and gave him the title of al-Ri∂a. However, {Ali died soon after and was buried in ™us by the Caliph who himself recited the funeral prayers. The tomb became a centre of pilgrimage and is now known as Mashhad, literally ‘place where a witness of the faith died’; the name of ™us is hardly remembered. Today in Iran, Mashhad (usually spelled Meshed) is a very important centre of the Shi{a11. about this increase since the Shi{is practised taqiyya, i.e. they had the ethical right to keep their true allegiance a complete secret. 9 See EI, sub Dja'far al-∑adiÈ in vol. II, p. 374. His mother was a great-granddaugh- ter of Abu Bakr. During the revolution after the death of the Omayyad al-Walid in 126/744, Ja'far practised Èu{ud, i.e. he did not rise because the moment was not yet ripe. 10 See The Necessity of Imamat (see note 7 above), p. 40. 11 The Ithna{ashari historians maintain that the Caliph al-Ma}mun realized the legiti- mate claims of Ali al-Ri∂a and his family to the leadership of Islam. However, Carl BROCKELMANN in his History of the Islamic Peoples, New York 1960, p.
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