British Institute of Persian Studies

The "Tradition of Mufaal" and the Doctrine of the Raja: Evidence of "Ghuluww" in the Eschatology of Twelver Shiism? Author(s): Colin P. Turner Reviewed work(s): Source: Iran, Vol. 44 (2006), pp. 175-195 Published by: British Institute of Persian Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4300708 . Accessed: 02/02/2012 12:12
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THE "TRADITION MUFADDAL" OF AND THE DOCTRINEOF THE EVIDENCEOF GHULUWW THE ESCHATOLOGY IN RAJ'A: OF TWELVERSHI'ISM?
By Colin P. Turner
Durham University

"That raj]awill certainly the occuris one of the fundamental beliefs of the Shi'itefaithandone upon whichthereis completeconsensus."' 1. INTRODUCTION

Of all the epiphenomena attendingthe reappearance of the Mahdiin the TwelverShi'iteeschatologi(zuhir) cal schema, arguablythe most contentiousyet least discussedis thatof the raj'a-the return earthof the to the other eleven Imams and an undisclosed Prophet, with a groupof their number Shi'itefaithful, of together enemies. According to Shi'ite Traditions,this rewill for emergence be effectedin order the Imamsof the 'Alid line to exactretribution fromall of those deemed to have violatedtheirrightsor oppressedthem in the is, past.The revengeof the Imamson theiropponents the Traditions of aver,the key to ourunderstanding the Mahdistmission, for the Shi'itenotion of justice can neverbe realised,and aspirations the utopianendfor times imamateof the "House of 'Ali" can never be fulfilled,while the sins of the enemiesgo unpunished. Despite the fact that the twin doctrines of the occultation(ghayba)and reappearance (zuh7r) of the Hidden Imam have in recent years played such a prominent part in the psycho-dynamics underpinning of certainstrands Shi'itepoliticalthought, doctrinal the of status the raj'aitselfremains unclear. Therearemany possiblereasonsfor this. One is the lack of consensus which appearsto exist on the part of contemporary to of juristswithregard eitherthe authenticity the Shi'ite narrations which underpinit or the credibilityof the eventswhichthey purport foretell.Another fantastic to of is the sensitivity muchof the material 2. THERAJ'A: AND EVOLUTION ORIGINS involved,parwith regard thepunitive to measures whichthe ticularly Imamsareto takeagainstthe perceived of of usurpers the Beforelookingdirectlyat the "Tradition Mufaddal", A caliphate, Bakrand'Umar. thirdreasonconcerns a brief overview of the origins and evolutionof the Aba are doctrine TwelverShi'ismis necessary. in quitepossiblytheextentto whichthe raj'anarratives

embeddedin the soteriological mythosof the Mahdi, and the fact thatto cast doubton the raj'awould be to call intoquestion veracity thezuhir of theHidden the of Imamin general. It is the contentionof this writerthat the general doctrineof the raj'a-including the twin notionsof the ghaybaandzuhir of the HiddenImam-is forthe most into in parta secondary importation Shi'ism,introduced the secondandthirdcenturies A.H. by adherents one of or moreof the variousanarcho-mystical knownas sects the ghulat. To throw light on the issue, the present article looks at the longest and arguably most contentiousraj'a narrative them all-the so-called of "Tradition Mufaddal"?andanalysesit bothagainst of a backdropof the evolution of ghuluww and in the context of various developmentsin Twelver Shi'ism referenceto the socio-politicsof itself, with particular the late Safavid period. A number of important questionswill be raisedalongthe way. Fromwheredo the raj'anarratives and those originate whatinfluenced who narrated them? How, if such narratives were of dubiousprovenance, they come to be ascribedto did the Imams? the Arguably most pressingquestionof all is how and why, despite their authorshaving been deemed unreliable or extremist by earlier Shi'ite the were able not only to authorities, raj'a narratives find their way into otherwise orthodox works of Tradition such as the monumental Bihar al-anwdrof 'Allama Majlisi, but also to receive the scholarly blessingof laterwritersand,as a result,be acceptedas a centralelement of official doctrineconcerningthe of reappearance the HiddenImam?

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Although the points of convergence between Mahdism and a number of soteriological myths from pre-Islamic religions are so numerous that they suggest a common source, it is beyond the scope of this article to enter into a discussion on the extra-Islamicorigins of the notion of raj'a. That the Arabs of Medina at the time of Muhammadwould have been aufait with the concept of messianic return by dint of their dealings with the Jews is clear enough. This finds confirmation,perhaps, in the behaviour of certain followers who, upon hearing of the death of Muhammad himself, claimed that the Prophet had not died and would one day returnto the fold in order to complete his mission.2 Thirty odd years later, the death of 'Ali had similar repercussions, and Shi'ite historians tell how a group of his supporters believed that he had not died but had instead gone into occultation.3Such a belief should be understood in the context of the shock and frustration which 'Ali's followers felt following his sudden departure,particularly after the hopes they had invested in his imamate. Indeed, the growth of Mahdist messianism among the early Imamis, and the concomitant development of the doctrine of raj'a, was a result of the inability of 'Ali and his progeny to fulfil the aspirationsof their increasingly voluble and, at times, militant supporters-their "party" or shiTa. However, it was with the death of b. jHusayn 'Ali thatthe seed of Imami messianism found its most fertile soil, and it is in the aftermathof Karbala that the idiosyncraticallyShi'ite doctrine of the occulted Imam and the return of the soteriological hero has its origins. As hopes for the restoration of what they perceived to be the true Imamate receded, and as the aspirationsof the followers of the Imams were stymied by Umayyad and Abbasid rulers alike, the Imami faithful focused their emotional energies on the promise of futurevictory, investing their faith in a numberof key figures-scions of the "house of'Ali"--and splittingup into numerous sects and sub-sects in the process. Consequently, the first three centuries of Imami history was witness to a string of "pseudo-Mahdis", each embodying the aspirations of a particular Shi'ite group or sub-sect. The first political manifestationof the Mahdist ideal allegedly foretold in Prophetic Traditions came with the claims made on behalf of Muhammadb. who was believed to be living in occultation IHanafiyya, somewhere in the mountains of Radwa and who would return in the future to fill the earth with justice and restore the Imamate to its rightful owners.4 Others awaited the returnofMuhammad b. 'Abdallahb. Hasan,

also held to be in concealment, while the Nw~iwsiyya believed that Ja'far al-Sadiq did not die but was in occultation, to returnat some later date as the Mahdi of the "House of 'Ali"; the Waqifiyya held similar views concerning Ja'far's son, Mais al-Kazim.5 Later, the Muhammadiyya would forward similar claims for the son of the Tenth Imam, 'Ali al-Naqi, while certain Imams believed that although the Eleventh Imam, Hasan al-'Askari, had indeed died, he would rise up once more in the futureas the promised qd'im of the ahl al-bayt.6 The most developed of the doctrines of occultation and reappearanceis, of course, that of the Twelvers, the reappearance (zuhiir) of whose Hidden Imam, Muhammad b. Hasan al-'Askari, forms the central pillar of the raj'a narrative.

3. THE RAJ'AIN TWELVERTRADITIONS The locus classicus for the Twelver exposition of the raj'a is 'Allama Muhammad Baqir Majlisi's Bihar alanwar, where it forms an adjunctto his exposition of the doctrines of ghayba, intizar and zuhi7r.7 Majlisi presents 163 raj'a narrationsin two sections: 162 relatively short narrations covering general aspects of the "return", taken mostly from a number of traditionalsources;8and the so-called "Traditionof Mufaddal", which, at some forty pages long, is one of the longest narrationsin the entire Bihar.9 The Traditionsin the first section of Majlisi's chapter on the raj'a consist of Koranic verses said to allude to the return of the Imams;10supplications prescribed for those who wish to "return"themselves as followers of the Imams; and Traditions which simply affirm the necessity and certainty of the raj'a in principle. The picture which emerges from them is not always clear, and Majlisi appears to ignore or disregard the problematic nature of many of the narratives, the provenance of which is never discussed. Several Traditions assert that the first Imam to emerge from the grave duringthe parousia of the Mahdi will be IHusayn 'Ali." He will be accompanied by the b. same seventy-two companions and family members who were slaughtered alongside him at Karbala. The Mahdi will give I;Iusaynthe signet ring of kingship and will then die, whereupon HIusaynwill wash and bury him.12 will then set about taking revenge on his .Husayn by hosts of angels who, apparentlytoo aided enemies, late to help him at Karbala,have been weeping over his

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martyrdom ever since.13 Another Tradition mentions that IHusaynwill be accompanied not by seventy-two companions but by 75,000 well-armed combatants.'4 Shortly afterwards, 'Ali, accompanied by 30,000 Kufans, will returnto seek revenge on Mu'awiya; this army will be augmented by a force of Shi'ites numbering 70,000. The armies of 'Ali and Mu'awiya will meet again in what appears to be a re-run of the Battle of Siffin. This time, however, there will be no arbitration,and Mu'awiya's forces will be obliterated completely. At some point after this, the Prophet Muhammad will also return to earth; he will become sultan of the whole world, and the Imams will be his commanders and governors. The Muhammadan message will be taken to all people, and Muhammad will not have to hide his mission as he did initially in Mecca. God will give the dominion of the whole of the cosmos, from the day of its creation to the day of Judgement,to the Prophetand the Imams.15 According to another Tradition, the Imams will come back to life in this world mainly in order to exact retribution from their enemies, who will also be returned.After taking revenge, the Imams will live for thirty months and then die all together on the same night, their hearts satisfied that they have righted the wrongs perpetrated against them. Their enemies, however, will be destined for the torturesof hellfire.'6 The period of thirty months mentioned in this Tradition is at odds with the other narratives, for elsewhere it is stated that while the Mahdi will rule for only nineteen years, one member of the Prophet's household will reign for 309 years, the same length of time as that spent by the "Sleepers in the Cave" (ahl alkahj).'7 Another Tradition claims that Muhammad's second stay on earthwill last for 50,000 years, while the end-times caliphate of'Ali will last 44,000 years.18The discrepancies between these narrations receive no comment from Majlisi. The raj'a narratorsalso seem to be in disagreement over exactly who will return.One Traditionasserts that when the Mahdi reappears,God will revive a group of Shi'ites with their swords and lead them to him.19 Another claims that anyone who dies before the raj'a as a believer in the Imam will reside with the Imams in heaven until the returnof the Mahdi, at which point God will bring them back to earth and despatch them to the Mahdi's side.20 Elsewhere we read that any believer who has been slain will returnin order to die a natural death; any believer who has died a natural death will

returnin orderto be slain and thus achieve martyrdom.21 Shi'ite believers are encouraged to pray that they be included among those returningto earth in the Mahdi's entourage, and the supplication known as Du'v-i 'ahd is appended to the raj'a Traditionsfor this purpose.

4. THE "TRADITION OF MUFADDAL" But it is the "Traditionof Mufaddal"which is the most contentious of all the raj'a narrations. Allegedly transmitted from Ja'far al-Sadiq by his disciple b. Mufakddal 'Umar, the forty-page narrativereflects the almost maniacal sense of oppression and desire for revenge that characterisedearly Shi'ite messianism. We shall reserve judgement about the provenance of this Traditionuntil we have re-examined it in the context of both the development of ghuluww and the career of Mufaddal b. 'Umar himself. An abridged translationof the Traditionnow follows: he Whenthe Mahdifinallydoes reappear will put an all discord: religions end to all schismsand sectarian will becomeone. Thatreligionwill be Islam,just as and the otherapostleswas the religionof Abraham Islam.22 no-onewill be able to Whenthe Mahdifirstappears, he see him. Duringhis occultation, will have lived in the of thecompany angelsandthoseamongst jinnwho first believe,buthe will risealone.He will reappear in a the clothes of the Prophet, yellow Mecca,wearing the turbanand patchedsandals.He will be carrying a staff and shepherding thin goat. He will Prophet's the approach Ka'bain this mannerand no-one will recognisehim. He will enterthe Ka'baandstay there until nightfall.Then, under cover of darkness,the archangelsGabrieland Michael will descend upon him, with other angels and celestialbeings in their retinue. Gabriel will put himself at the Mahdi's cheekwith disposal.The Mahdiwill touchGabriel's his hand and thank God that the divine promise has his concerning return been fulfilled. The Mahdiwill then standbetweenthe ruknand the maqcmandcry:"Onoblesandthosewho areclose to on me! O you who havebeenpreserved earthin order to hastento my aid! Come forwardnow and obey me!" These helperswill then flock to him fromeast

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and west, some from their places of worship and others from their beds, all galvanised by the Mahdi's call. Pillars of light will appear in the sky, so bright that everyone on earth will see them. This light will render the believers ecstatic, even though at this point they are still unaware of the Mahdi's return. By morning, all [of the believers] will be assembled with the Mahdi: their numberwill be 313, the same number as that of the Prophet's soldiers at the Battle of Badr. At this point, b. 'Ali will also return,together .Husayn with 12,000 Shi'ites. Any pledge of allegiance to any rulerbefore the return of the Mahdi is tantamount to unbelief (kufr) and hypocrisy. God will curse anyone who pledges such allegiance, which must be given to the Mahdi alone. The Mahdi will sit with his back to the wall of the Ka'ba, light emanating from his hands, and receive allegiance. Gabriel will be the first to kiss his hand, followed by the angels and thejinn. The inhabitantsof Mecca will wonder what is happening, but will still not recognise the Mahdi or those who are in his company. At sunrise, a voice will be heard calling out from the east. Audible to everyone on earth, in clear Arabic it will cry, "O people of earth! This is the Mahdi, from the family of Muhammad."The voice will then call out the names of the Prophetand the other Imams. The caller will invite the people to pledge allegiance to the Mahdi so that they may find true salvation; should they desist, they will perish. All of the angels and the jinn will kiss the Mahdi's hand and promise to obey him. All of the people on earthwill have heard the cry and will discuss the event with one another. Then, as the sun begins to set, a voice will call out from the west, "O people of earth!Your lord, 'Uthman b. al-'Anbasa,the Umayyad, has risen in Palestine. Go to him and pledge allegiance, so that you may be saved." All of those who have pledged allegiance to the Mahdi will refute the caller, saying, "We have heard, but we will not obey!" However, those who have doubts concerning the Mahdi will be led astray. The Mahdi will then lean against the Ka'ba and say, "Whoever wishes to see Adam and Seth, know that I am they; whoever wishes to see Abraham and Ishmael, know that I am they; whoever wishes to see

Muhammad and 'Ali, know that I am they... I am Hasan and I am IHusayn... I am all of the Immaculate Imams. Accept my invitation and hasten to me so that I may inform you about anything you wish. Anyone who has read the holy scripturesand divine scrolls will hear them from my lips." The Mahdi will then recite all of the divine scriptures in their original forms, before they were distorted. Presently,the Mahdi will appoint a deputy to rule over Mecca, while he himself moves on to Medina. But before he leaves he will demolish the Ka'ba and rebuild it as it was during the time of Abraham. He will also rebuild the "sacred mosque" (masjid alharam). All traces of former tyranny,embodied in the form of mosques and palaces, will be destroyed. The Mahdi's deputy in Mecca will be slaughteredby the inhabitantsof the city. In response, the Mahdi will despatch an army of jinn, instructing them to kill everyone there save for the truebelievers; consequently only one in a thousandof the Meccan population shall remain. The Mahdi will then take up residence in Kufa, where all believers will then be assembled. All of the people of the world will wish that they could reside there, so sacred will be its soil. Kdfa will grow to such an extent that its outskirts will envelop Karbala, which at this time will be the gathering place for angels and believers. Karbalawill be so elevated in God's esteem that any believer who stands in that city and asks God for sustenance will be provided with a thousand times more than the whole world. All of the towns and cities once vied with each other for the title of most auspicious place on earth. For example, the Ka'ba used to think that it was better than Karbala,but God sent a revelation in which He ordered the Ka'ba to keep quiet, saying that since it was home to the shrine of Imam IHusayn,Karbalawas the best place on earth. It was from there that the Prophetmade his ascension (mi'rdj) and blessings and goodness will be found there until the rise of the Imam. In Medina, the position of the Mahdi will be so exalted that the believers will rejoice and the unbelievers will moan with dismay. The Mahdi will approachthe grave of the Prophet. "Is this my ancestor's grave?" he will ask. The people will say that it is. "And who are those

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who are buried alongside him?" the Mahdi will ask. The people will reply that two of the Prophet's companions (Abi Bakr and 'Umar) are interred adjoining the Prophet's shrine. "Who are they?" the Mahdi will ask. "And how is it that from among all people it is these two who are buried here?" Those present will reply, "O Mahdi, they were the caliphs and fathers-in-law of the Prophet." The Mahdi will then give orders for the graves of Aba Bakr and 'Umar to be opened and their remains to be exhumed. When the two caliphs are disinterred it becomes clear that their flesh has remained uncorruptedfrom centuries of death; they are still as fresh as the day they died. The Mahdi will ask, "Does anyone know these men?", to which the people will reply, "Yes, we know them by their attributes;they were among the Prophet's closest companions." The Mahdi will then ask, "Do any of you have any doubts concerning these two?" The people will reply that they have no doubts whatsoever, at which point the Mahdi will rebury the corpses. Three days later, the Mahdi will order the bodies of Aba Bakr and 'Umar to be exhumed once more. Again, the corpses are seen to be fresh and unsullied by decay. The devotees of AbO Bakr and 'Umar will rejoice, taking this to be a miraculous sign of the caliphs' righteousness. "We are proud of our loyalty and devotion to these two men!" they will say. At which point one of the Mahdi's followers will call out, "All those who love these two men, stand to one side!" The assembled crowd will then split into two groups. The Mahdi will then addressthe group loyal to the two caliphs and command them to recant and express hatred towards them. The devotees of Abti Bakr and 'Umar will say, "O Mahdi! Before we knew how you felt about these two caliphs, we did not hate them. And now that we see-through the miracle of their uncorruptedflesh-that God holds them in such high esteem, how can we show enmity towards them?" By God's leave, the Mahdi will then summon a swirling black wind to descend on the devotees ofAbti Bakr and 'Umar and destroy them. He will then command his men to bring the bodies of the two companions down from the tree on which they have

been hanging according to his previous orders. Then, by God's leave, he will bring Abu Bakr and 'Umar back to life, before giving orders for everyone to reassemble. The Mahdi will then give the people a detailed account of the two caliphs' lives and deeds. He will give an account of the slaying of Abel by Cain; the trial of Abrahamby fire; the casting of Joseph into the well; the punishment of Jonah in the belly of the great fish; the murderof John the Baptist; the crucifixion of and Daniel; the wounds of Jesus; the tortureof Jirjis23 Salman al-Farsi;the incident in which the door of 'Ali was burntdown by an angry mob, injuringFatima and causing her to miscarry; the poisoning of Imam IHasan;the martyrdom of Husayn and his followers and children. All of these incidents will be blamed by the Mahdi on AbO Bakr and 'Umar. Indeed, all of the blood spilled unlawfully from the very beginning of time; all rapes of innocent women; all sins and vices; all acts of treachery,oppression and injustice; all acts of wrongdoing from the time of Adam until the rise of the Mahdi-all of these will be blamed on Abu Bakr and 'Umar. The case against them will be proven and they will confess to their crimes. At this point the Mahdi will invite anyone who has been wronged by Abi Bakr and 'Umar to come forward and exact retribution. This will take place. The two Companions will be strung up on a tree, whereupon the Mahdi will command a fire to rise up out of the ground. The flames will consume the tree and the two Companions along with it. The Mahdi will then command the wind to scatter the ashes of AbO Bakr and 'Umar over the sea. But this will not be the end for them, for on the day of resurrection all believers will assemble with the "Fourteen" (Muhammad, 'Ali, Fatima and the other eleven Imams) to take further revenge from the two companions. They will be put to death and revived a thousand times a day, and their tortures will never cease. The Mahdi will then move on to Baghdad, which will be the most accursed city on God's earth. Corruption and insurrection will have destroyed the city and it will be deserted. Woe unto Baghdad and her people! All of the torturesvisited on men since the beginning

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of creationwill descend on Baghdad.Woe betide anyoneliving there!The people of Baghdadwill be on the mostcorrupt earth: theywill haveknownsuch
decadence and ease that they will imagine it is heaven on earth. Lies, vices, depravity,drunkenness, adultery

of account of their usurpation the caliphate,their land of herinherited at Fadak, wrongfulappropriation

and their forced entry into 'Ali's house.24'Ali himself

and will then step forward make similarcomplaints,

and this will continue until all of the Imams have pleaded for justice and demanded revenge for all of the oppression and torture they have received from

the will andmurder be suchthatGodwill destroy city God will unleash meansof its own wrongdoing. by will be and armieson it fromall directions Baghdad flattened crushed. and At thispointa Hasanid sayyidwill rise in Daylamand invite people to join the Mahdi.Men of strongfaith
will rise from Talaqan on swift horses. Bearing weapons, they will cut a swathe throughPersia, killing

their enemies during their first lives. Finally, the aboutall of those to Mahdiwill stepforward complain in his reappearance. who did not believe will Havingheardtheirpleas forjustice,the Prophet turnto the Imamsand say: "I thankGod thatHe has of kept His promiseto us and madeus inheritors the earth.We can live in any part of Heaven that we of choose.How good is thereward thosewho perform and God'ssuccour victoryare deedsof righteousness!
at hand." He will then recite the Koranic verse which describes this victory, a victory which comes to wash away all sins. The Mahdi will then return to Kifa

who them,untiltheyreach everytyrant triesto prevent The Kafa,wheretheywill takeup residence. Hasanid sayyidwill meet the Mahdiand pledge allegianceto him.Onlythe Zaydisamongthe peoplewill refuseto of hand:theywill rejectthe return the kiss the Imam's will The Mahdias sorcery. Mahdi advisethemto think he again,buttheywill refuse.Finally, will be forcedto them. slay to The Mahdiwill then prepare fight the Sufyaniin on and will the Damascus: latter be captured beheaded b. a rock.Husayn 'Ali,with 12,000trusted companions fromKarbala, of and seventy-two his fellow martyrs of Thiswill be a "return light"(raj'a will thenappear. and niriyya).'Ali too will reappear erecta tent, one pole of whichwill be in Najaf,one in Medina,one in Meccaand one on the hill of Safa,nearMecca.The and the heavens and the earthwill be illuminated will secretsof all men revealed. Nursingmothers flee
in terror from their offspring. The Prophet and his companions and all of those who believed in his

where golden locustswill fall from the sky. He will

then destroy the mosque erected by Yazid after the

beforelayingwaste of martyrdom Husaynat Karbala, andfor tyrants. to all othermosquesbuiltby asks Mufaddal Finally,in the codicilto the Tradition, al-Sadiqto explainwhat he meansaboutthe victory which will wash away all sins. After all, what sins could the Prophet possibly have had? Al-Sadiq once askedGodto makehim that explains theProphet for responsible all of the sins of the shi'a of 'Ali. God of and this granted request placedthe burden the sins of all Shi'ites on the Prophet'sshouldersand then immediatelyforgavehim. However,al-Sadiqwarns Mufaddalthat this must not be made public, lest ordinary Shi'itesbecomelax in theiractionsandthus and intercession themselvesof Muhammad's deprive the mercyof theAlmighty.[Endof narration] Structurally and conceptually, the "Tradition of Mufaddal"stands apartfrom the vast majority of Imami narrations which deal with the reappearance of the Mahdi and the returnof the Imams. Its length militates against our including it among the traditional Shi'ite hadtth material, most of which comprises relatively short reports which record the acta and dicta of the Imams, and while its themes and motifs are not entirely incongruous with those which characterisea good deal of Shi'ite end-times literature,there is a vehemence in

to will Also, all of thosewho prophethood return earth. him to refused believein himandwho opposed will be so returned thatrevengemaybe exactedon them. and Then, all of the Imamswill reappear line up in front of the Prophetin order to complain of the
oppression they have suffered in their previous earthly existence. They will say: "We have been cursed, accused, threatened, imprisoned, poisoned and

will say: The weeping bitterly, oppressed." Prophet,

"O my children! I have indeed suffered more than you." One by one the Imams will step forward to recounttheir tragedies. Fatimawill be the first to plead for justice. She will vilify Abti Bakr and 'Umar on

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the anti-Sunni invective which distinguishes it even Its from its sister narratives.25 provenance is, of course, in doubt, and its ascription to Ja'far al-Sadiq almost part certainly the work of later polemicists. Mufahddal's in the production of the text is, however, unclear; more will be said about him shortly. It is with much greater confidence that we can identify the Mufaddal narrative as a work which embodies the beliefs and aspirationsof the "extremists", bearing as it does many of the hallmarksof early Kufan ghuluww. Our analysis of the Tradition will focus on four distinctive characteristics which suggest a ghali origin for at least certain parts of the text. These are: i. The superhuman nature of the Imams. While all Imami Traditionsascribe qualities to the Imams which separate them from the commonalty, the ghulat tend to describe the Imams in terms that borderon the superhuman.The raj'a narrativesin general include descriptions of the Imams in which they are elevated to the position of of demiurges, and the "Tradition Mufaddal"is no exception. ii. The quasi-christological nature of the Imams. A hallmarkof early Kufan ghuluww was the belief in the docetic death of the Imams-Husayn in particular-and the notion that atonement for sin could be realised through the intercession of the Imam. For the early Kufans, this intercessionwas tied up inextricably with the martyrdom of Husayn, who became in one sense the "Christ that Islam never had". The "Tradition of Mufaddal"reflects this, even though the intercessory burden here is placed first and foremost on Muhammadhimself. iii. Anti-Sunnism. The early Kufan ghuldt were renowned for their hostility towards the caliphs AbiI Bakr and 'Umar. The "Tradition of Mufaddal"reflects this most strikingly. iv. The "imamocentricity" of the soteriological drama. The common thread linking all early ghulat groups was the desire to avenge the martyrdom of IHusayn. As such, messianic aspirations were focused on the return of an Imam, or Imams, who would exact retribution from their enemies and reclaim their God-given

rights as leaders of the Muslim community. Consequently,the raj'a is an opportunityfor the establishmentof justice for the Imams, while the salvation of the commonalty becomes a peripheralconcern.Again, the Mufaddalnarrative reflects the "imamocentric"nature of the Shi'ite eschaton. To be able to judge whether the "Tradition of Mufaddal" does indeed reflect the teachings of the ghuldt, it is appropriateat this point to throw some light on the evolution of ghuluww and the role in its propagation-if any-played by Mufaddal b. 'Umar. We shall then returnto the narrationand assess it in the light of our findings.

5. WHAT IS GHULUWWAND WHO WERE THE GHULATP The ghuldt (sing. ghdli) may be defined in general as those who are nominally Muslim but who ascribe to doctrinesdeemed hereticalenough to place them outside the pale of Muslim orthodoxy. The overlay of Muslim civilisation on an area in the Middle East of late antiquity which was home to a number of rich traditions meant that a veritable smorgasbordof religious expressionsZoroastrianism,Mazdaism, Manichaeism, Judaism and various forms of Gnostic Christianity-was thrown into juxtaposition with Islam. Inevitably,with time, elements from these various traditions were adopted by some Muslims, with doctrines such as tashbih (anthropomorphism with regardto God), tandsukh(metempsychosis) and hultil (divine incarnation in man) finding favour among various groups and communities virtually from the advent of Islam itself. Traditionally, however, it is with Shi'ism in particular that ghuluww has been associated. Its most salient feature in this respect has been the extreme veneration of the Imams-'Ali in particular-which has often manifested itself in the attribution of divine powers to the Imams and their progeny. While extremist sentiments regarding 'Ali may have existed during his own lifetime, the main catalyst for the rapid development of extremist tendencies occurred with the killing of IIusayn at Karbala and the succession crisis which ensued. With the advent of the Kaysaniyya, who believed that Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya was the Mahdi of the "House of'Ali", a series of sects, sub-sects

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and movements sprang up which merged the gnostic with the messianic, graduallyevolving into a whole host of anarcho-mystical sects known as the ghulat. Gradually,to the beliefs already enumeratedwere added notions such as ghayba (occultation), raj'a (return), tafivid (delegation of divine powers to other than God) and badd~(alterationof the divine will). For the ghuldt, the Imams embodied not only their political aspirationsbut their conception of the Godhead itself, and it is from this point onwards that the "House of 'Ali" takes on a superhuman, almost demiurgic quality. That each of the Imams in turn would become the focus of messianic expectation is therefore not surprising, although it seems that they were always careful to distance themselves from the ghali groups who tended to accrete aroundthem. It was during the lifetime of the Sixth Imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq, that the extremist groups relevant to the current discussion were active. The most important of these was the group founded by the Kafan merchant Abu 'l-Khattab al-Asadi, whose followers-the Khattabiyya- proclaimed his prophecy and deified alSadiq. Among the followers of the Khattabiyyaand its offshoots are a number of famous individuals whose names are prominent in the chains of transmission of a considerable number of Traditions narrated on his authority in the classical compilations of Shi'ite hadith.26 Mufaddal b. 'Umar, the narratorof the curious "Traditionof Mufaddal",is one of them.

6. THE ROLE OF MUFADDAL B. 'UMAR Given that the enigmatic Ktifan money changer Mufaddalb. 'Umar al-Ju'fi (d. c. 790) is one of the most prolific narratorsof Shi'ite Traditions, the paucity of information on his life and career is dismaying. Of the material that he narrated-for the most part from the Fifth and Sixth Imams, MuhammadBaqir and Jacfar alhave plenty, and in the chains of transmisSadiq-we sion of those narrations concerning the return of the Hidden Imam his presence approaches ubiquity. Of Mufaddal the man, however, we know next to nothing. Apart, it would seem, from his dubious reliability as a transmitter Imami narrations.For a cursory study of of the early biographicalsources would tend to suggest that his place in the Twelver rogues' gallery ofghulat is more or less beyond doubt: Ibn Dawaidrecords him as "ideologically corrupt" (frsid al-madhhab) and generally

untrustworthy as a transmitter of Imami narrations (muidtarib al-riwaya), while al-Ghada'iri describes and Mufaddal as "extremely unreliable"(4daifjiddan) an "extremist in matters of religion" (ghdli al-madhhab).27 Western writers tend to confirm the views of the rijdl specialists. Andrew Newman quite rightly points out that Mufaddal is "universally decried in the later biographies",while Tamirand Khalifa have no qualms about locating him firmly in the camp of the extremists, claiming that both Mufaddal and his master, Ja'far alSadiq, were progenitors of the Batiniyya, a conclusion they base on the ascriptionto al-Sadiq of the mysterious Kitdb al-Haft, which we shall discuss shortly.28 However, al-Kashshi's account in his Rijdl reveals that there is more to Mufaddal than meets the eye, and suggests that appraisalsof him have tended in the past to be two-dimensional. What Kashshi's anecdotes imply is that at some point during his discipleship, the erstwhile loyal and thoroughly devoted Mufaddal became estranged from al-Sadiq and gravitated towards the teachings of Abu 'l-Khattabal-Asadi, the founder of the As Khattatbiyya.29 Madelung points out, Abu 'l-Khattab was initially encouraged in his endeavours by al-Sadiq, but was later disowned by him on account of his growing extremism. Consequently, the Khattabiyya splintered into a number of sub-sects, such as the Baziqhiyya, who claimed that al-Khattabwas a prophet sent by al-Sadiq; the 'Umayriyya, who deified al-Sadiq and devised rites of worship in his honour; and the Mu'ammariyya, who believed that when the Divine light was transferredto al-Sadiq, the latter became an angel, and thatthe man now claiming to be al-Sadiq was All actually an impostor.30 of these groups believed that the Divine light (n7r ildht) was present in the bodies of the Imams, who are by virtue of this effulgence semidivine. The Khattabiyya and its offshoots were also antinomian,believing that they were above the letter of the law, and that the practical religious ordinances outlined in the Koran were directed at specific individuals ratherthan the commonalty. One such sub-groupwas the Mufaddaliyya,so-called on account of their alleged adherence to Mufaddal b. The beliefs of this group, and the involvement 'Umar.31 of Mufaddalin its founding or activities, remain unclear. Madelung contends that the Mufaddaliyya, like other sub-groupsof the Khattabiyya,deified al-Sadiq, but that the Mufaddaliyya later became distinguished by their repudiationof Abu 'l-Khattab;Mufaddal later recanted, however, and towards the end of his career became a

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trustedcompanion to the seventh Shi'ite Imam, Muss alKazim.32 TSmirand Khalifa also refer to a brief period in Mufaddal's career in which his involvement with the Khatt-biyya led to his being disowned by al-Sadiq. However, they point to Mufahddal's possible involvement with those who championed the imamate of Isma'il b. Ja'faras the reason for his estrangementfrom al-Sadiq.33 That Mufaddal clearly did undergo some mid-life ideological crisis which turned him away from the mainstreamteachings of al-Sadiq and into the arms of the Khattabiyya-and possibly even the protoIsma'iliyya-may be inferred from the anecdotal evidence provided by al-Kashshi. The seventeen in narrationswhich make up the entry for Mufakddal alKashshi's Rijdl span three clear divisions in his career: his discipleship under Ja'far al-Sadiq; the Khattabiyya "interlude"; and his return to the fold as boon companion of Misa al-Kazim. The views on his character and behaviour as reportedby al-Kashshi, through various narrators,tend to reflect this periodisation. As a trusted student of alclearly enjoyed the high regard of his Sadiq, Mufahddal master: b. askedMuhammad Kathir al-Thaqafi, al-Sadiq Ja'far The "What is your opinion of Mufahddal?" latter "What I say abouthim?Evenif I saw him can replied, wearing priestlyrobesanda crucifix,I wouldbelieve himto be on therightpath,especially afterwhatI have him from you." Ja'farsaid, "May God heardabout and have mercyon him, but Hujrb. Zacida 'Amirb. him cameto me andcursed in frontof me. I told Jazd'a themto refrainfromthis on accountof my love for but [Mufaddal], they did not accept.I askedthem to desist for my sake, but they refused.May Allah not forgive them! If they respectme, they will respect becauseof me."34 [Mufaddal]

complained bitterly to the Imam about his representative's apparentcrisis of faith. In narrativeswhich clearly is pertain to this middle period of his life, Mufahddal as an upholderof hereticaldoctrines portrayedvariously concerning Ja'faral-Sadiq; an antinomian libertine who consorts with scoundrels and pigeon-fanciers; and a That al-Sadiq fabricatorof Traditionsfor financial gain.37 is himself repudiatedMufahddal clear from at least two accounts in which the Imam denounces his former disciple as an "infidel" (kifir) and an "associationist" (mushrik), although al-Kashshi implies that the Imam was at firstreluctantto do so.38 It appearsthatthe Imam's denunciation of Mufaddal was down not so much to rumours of his disciple's libertinism as to Mufaddal's alleged support for the claims surroundingIsmaciland the connection which it is claimed that he had with Ismalil's son, Muhammad. One narrationrecounts how the exasperated Imam sent one of his companions to warn Mufaddal that he must sever his ties with IsmX'il; another has al-Sadiq confronting Mufaddal in person, saying: "O infidel! O associationist! What do you want with my son? Do you want to kill him?"39 Finally, al-Kashshi includes a narrationwhich confirms Mufaddal's eventual returnto the fold: It was said that when Abu 'l-Hasan[i.e. Mnsa aldeath,he said:"May Kazim]heardaboutMufaddal's God havemercyon him!He was like a secondfather to me, andnow he is at rest."40

Mufaddal emerges from al-Kashshi's anecdotes as a flawed but eminently credible characterwhose devotion to the Imams of the 'Alid line was puncturedby a short ideological crisis which pushed him briefly into the ambit of the Khattabiyya and other sub-sects of the ghulat. That there is ample of evidence of ghuluww in many of the Traditions with which he is said to be involved appears beyond doubt, although the question of attributionand authenticitywill always remain, as we Indeed, Mufaddal was apparently so close to al-Sadiq that the latter looked upon him as a "second father".35 shall see shortly.To explore this further,we need to look at a number of other Traditionsnarratedby Mufaddal, Thus when the Khattabiyyaheresy began to take root particularlythose ascribed to Ja'faral-Sadiq. and al-Sadiq's followers suggested to the Imam that he appoint a representative to answer their religious questions and dispel theirdoubts,he chose Mufaddal,on 7. TRADITIONS NARRATED BY the grounds that "he does not say anything false about MUFADDAL B. 'UMAR God or about 'Ali."36 It appears, however, that it was not long before There are hundreds of Traditionsnarratedby Mufaddal a himself gravitatedtowards the Khatt~abiyya, Mufalddal b. 'Umar on behalf of the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh move which outraged the followers of al-Sadiq, who

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Shi'ite Imams, although it is for his connection to alSadiq for which he is most famous. A number of narrationstransmittedby Mufaddal appearin al-Saffar's seminal Basa'ir al-darajdt, a compilation of Imami Traditions which focus primarily on the near-otherworldly nature of'Ali and his successors, and the work which more than any other established the notion of the miraculous knowledge ('ilm) of the Imam. As Newman shows, the inclusion, inter alios, of Mufaddal in this compilation shows that traditionistsof the period often accepted as reliable the narrationsof those who would later be excoriated as extremists by the Shi'ite And as we have already seen, narrations orthodoxy.41 transmitted by Mufaddal also feature prominently in works detailing the events of the ghayba, the period of intizdr and, more importantly from our point of view, the zuhi7rof the Mahdi and the raj'a of the Imams. It will not have escaped the reader'sattentionthatthe two main foci of Mufaddal's narrations, namely the miraculous knowledge and attributes of the Imams, together with their return to earth in the raj'a, are subjects that were first broachedby the messianic ghuldt of Ktifa. The "Traditionof Mufaddal"which appears in the Bihdr includes both of these themes, which would indeed its chain of transmission is suggest-if authentic-that its narrator,Mufaddal b. 'Umar, did indeed merit the pejorative ghdli al-madhhab given to him by al-Ghadd'iri. Yet the existence of two other Traditions in the both claimed to have been narratedby Mufaddal from Ja'faral-Sadiq, suggests that any appraisal of the Bihd.r, Kufan money-changer that is based solely on the raj'a narrativeswill tell only one side of his story. The first of these Traditions is, rather confusingly, also known as the "Traditionof Mufahddal", although it has appearedin printededitions as Tawhidal- Mufaddal, or "Mufaddal's Treatise on Divine Unity". Covering almost a hundredpages of the thirdvolume of Majilisi's Bihar al-anwdr, the Traditionis in the form of lengthy sermon given by Ja'far al-Sadiq in response to the queries of a self-confessed atheist, one Ibn 'Ali 'Awja, concerning the existence of God.42In four "sessions" or discourses (majlis), al-Sadiq expounds on the necessity of God's existence as dictatedby the order,harmonyand wisdom evident in the creation of humankind, the animal kingdom, the cosmic environmentin which they find themselves, and in the presence of "natural disasters".Employing the general approachof the kaldm cosmological argument,together with what seems to be

an inchoate form of the anthropicprinciple, the Tawhid al-Mufaddal is a standard work of Mu'tazilite-Imami theology, with nothing to suggest an origin anything but orthodox. The second Tradition is the shorter al-Ihlilaja or "The Tradition of the Myrobalan Fruit", which also appears in the third volume of the Bihdr.43 This Traditionis in the form of a debate between al-Sadiq and an Indian .tabib or druggist-cum-physician who, while pounding myrobalan one day in order to mix some concoction, came to the conclusion that the world of matter was eternal and that there was no room for the idea of a Creator. Again, the author employs the standard methods of Mu'tazilite-Imami theological reasoning, and there is nothing in either the methodology or the conclusion that would lead us to argue that it is the work of a heterodox Shi'ite sect. The attributionof these two Traditions to al-Sadiq and, more importantly,the identification of al-Mufaddal raises some interesting issues. While it as their narrator, is not inconceivable that these theological pieces may have originated in some form with al-Sadiq, the linguistic style and tenor of both Traditionssuggest that they stem from a later period; their similarity to the sermons of the Nahj al-baldgha, attributedtraditionally to Imam 'Ali but most probably in partthe work of later scholars, would tend to suggest that they date from the late fourth or early fifth centuryA.H. The problem with the idea of "back-projected"fabrication in this case, however, is one of timing. For if the Tawhid alMufaddal and the Treatiseon the Myrobalan Fruit were attributed to al-Sadiq in order that they might gain credibility, why would the fabricatorinclude the name of Mufaddalb. 'Umar in the chain of transmission,given that by the end of the fourthcentury,Mufaddalhad been exposed by at least two rijdl scholars as an unreliable extremist? This suggests an earlier date for the pieces, possibly no later than the end of the third century A.H. and certainly well before Mufaddal's posthumous but very public disgrace at the hands of the heresiographers and the rij'l experts, thus allowing the fabricatorto trade on both the good name of al-Sadiq and the reliability of b. 'Umar. The fact his narratorparexcellence, Mufa-ddal the Traditions appear to be a fifth that, linguistically, century concoction could be attributedto the eisegetical interpolationsof later editors, possibly including Majlisi himself. A third, weaker alternative is to assume that the Traditionsand their chains of transmissionare authentic,

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in which case they would represent the first brick of a theological edifice that has remained intact until the present day, thus locating Mufaddal firmly within the matrix of al-Sadiq's loyal and, more importantly,ideologically orthodox supporters.Whether authentic or a later work attributed to al-Sadiq via Mufaddal, the existence of these Traditionsmay be adduced to propose that Mufaddal's ghuluww was not all-embracing, and that in all likelihood he was responsible for the transmission of as much "orthodox"Imami materialas he was of Traditionslater deemed extreme.

8. MUFADDAL AND THE KITABAL-HAFT WA'L-AZILLA The raj'a narrativesaside, what appears to be the most convincing evidence for Mufaddal's heterodox tendencies can be found in an obscure treatise entitled Kitdb al-Haft wa 'l-azilla ("The Book of Heptads and Shadows"), which is allegedly the Kifan's written record of question and answer sessions conducted with his master, al-Sadiq.44Unlike other material claimed to have been narrated from al-Sadiq by Mufaddal, the Kitab al-Haft does not appear in any of the standard Shi'ite works. According to its editors, Famir and Khalifa, the sole manuscript upon which the printed edition is based was located originally in an it was library in the Syrian town of Masyaf, where Ism.'ili apparently held in considerable esteem by Syrian Ismalilis.A cursory study, however, reveals that its links with the IsmRailisare peripheral, and that the treatise does indeed reflect the beliefs and ideas of certainKilfan extremistgroups that existed on the fringes of Shi'ism in the second and third centuriesA.H. However, the subject matter of al-Haft differs considerably from the material we find in the raj'a narratives, a departurewhich reflects to an extent the two main components of ghuluww-messianism and gnosticism-which were ever present in ghali thought but which were not always expressed in the same narration. While the raj'a narratives would have appealed to the aspirationsof those mainstreamShi'ites who looked to the returnof the Imams in orderto realise a political goal, as well as to the messianic apocalypts who were largely responsible for transmittingthem, the Kitdb al-Haft would have appealed only to those whom Bayhom-Daou calls the "gnostic ghuladt"--namely, those on the periphery of Shi'ism who, over and above

promulgating the soteriological myth of the raj'a, looked to the miraculous creation and knowledge of the Imams in order to make sense of their universe.45In short, while the raj'a narratives embody the political aspirations of the ghulat, works such as the Kitab alHaft represent, for want of a better term, the ghali theology which underpinsthem. Similar to what Halm cites as the earliest known work of the ghali tradition, the Umm al-Kitab or "FoundationalText",the sixty-seven abwab of the Kitab al-Haft contain the body of esoteric knowledge allegedly vouchsafed to Mufaddalby al-Sadiq. Here, we read of the creation of man and the universe from the primordial world of shadows (azilla)-pre-existing souls which, owing to their refusal to believe in God, are cast down and which create, out of their fall, the heavens and earthin which they dwell. The world painted by the Kitab al-Haft is a world in which the Imam is an embodiment of God's light or spirit,and can even effect a kind of demiurgic intervention between God and the rest of creation. It is a world in which the divine light is transmittedfrom one Imam to the next, or from an Imam to his trusted disciples, who are then considered semidivine in their own right. It is also a world in which metempsychosis (tandsukh) is a common occurrence, and where men can be metamorphosed into beasts as punishment through the miraculous power of the Imam.46 The semi-divine nature of the Imam finds its most elaborateexpression in the author'saccount of the Imam IHusayn,who, as we have already seen, is central to ghali concerns. Here, the author is at pains to stress the docetic nature of Husayn's "martyrdom", stressing that it was a likeness of Husayn that was slain on the battlefield of Karbald, while the real IHusayn-the embodiment of the prophet Ismail before him-was raised up to God: was so elevated in God's esteem that He .Iusayn would neverhave allowedhim to be slaughtered by infidels.The killing of Husaynwas an illusion that was like only the infidels could see, for .Husayn Jesus...47 The identification of al-Haft as a work of the ghulat is unproblematic, although its precise origins remain unclear.Notwithstandingthe claim that the book is held in high esteem by the Syrian Ismwiliyya, the Kitab alHaft is clearly not an Isma'ili work. As Madelung points

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out, the doctrines of the Ismwiliyya which emerged towards the end of the third century have little in common with the teachings of the Khattabiyya,whose ideas permeate the text, and that texts which did eventually find acceptance as IsmTili literature are in actual fact grafted on from other traditions. The Umm al-Kitcb, revered by the IsmWilisof Badakshan is one such example; the Kitab al-Haft appears to be another. Furthermore,according to Madelung, the teachings of the "Pentadists" (al-Mukhammisa),48 which are evident in the Umm al-Kitab, formed the doctrinalbasis of the Nusayriyya, who believe that Abu 'l-Khattab, Mufaddal b. 'Umar and Mufaddal's son, Muhammad, are the "gateways"(abwjb) to Musi al-Kazim al-.Sadiq, and 'Ali b. Musa al-Rida respectively. The identification of al-Haft as a Nusayri work with origins in one of the obscure offshoots of the Khattabiyyawould thus appear to be sound. Whether al-Sadiq was indeed the source of al-Haft, as Tamir and Khalifa seem to believe, does not concern us here. Our arguments have from the outset been predicated on the assumption of doctrinal "orthodoxy" on the part of al-Sadiq as defined by classical and contemporaryTwelver Shi'ite scholars. Tamir and Khalifa's suggestion that al-Sadiq was the founding father of the and Batiniyya,49 thathe hid his true orientationunderthe cloak of taqiyya, is a fascinating one that would repay furtherconsiderationand research.However, it must not delay us here. The question which concerns us here is whether or not Mufaddal was responsible for al-Haft, either as the originator of the text or as narratorfrom al-Sadiq. The response to this must be that we simply do not know for sure. While al-Haft is certainly representative of the kind of teachings that Mufaddal would have come across during the ideological crisis which pushed him into the ambit of the ghulat, it is impossible to say whether he is the source. The question of attributionis always a difficult one, particularlywhere the works of the early Shi'ites are concerned, and what applies to Mufaddal'spossible role in the productionof the Tawhid and the Treatise of the Myrobalan Fruit also applies, mutatis mutandis, to his role in the production of alHaft. However, such considerations do not prevent T~imir and Khalifa from linking Mufadhdal the work, or Halm to from attributing it instead to the Kufan ghali, Muhammadb. Sinan.5so Halm's ascription appears to be based on an entry in the Rijal of Najashi which credits

Muhammad b. Sinan with the authorship of a certain Kitib al-Azilla.51Whetheror not this is the same book is impossible to say. Muhammad b. Sinan was a Kufan ghali and a coeval of Mufaddal; they often appear together as transmitters of Traditions ascribed to alSadiq and it is possible that they were both followers of Abu 'l-Khattab at some point. But there is nothing to suggest that Muhammad b. Sinan ratherthan Mufaddal was responsible for al-Haft, although clearly more research is needed.52

9. THE RAJCA NARRATIVE RE-EXAMINED Having looked at the evolution of ghuluww and the career of Mufaddal b. 'Umar, we are now in a better position to re-examine the raj'a narratives in general, and the "Traditionof Mufaddal" in particular,with a view to gauging the influence of ghali thought on the doctrine of the returnof the Imams according to the four criteriamentioned earlier.

i. The miraculous nature of the Imams in the raj'a The Imams who reappear during the raj'a are characterised first and foremost by superhumanlongevity. This applies not only to the Mahdi, who will have lived in occultation "in the company of angels" for over a thousandyears, but also to a numberof the other Imams who reappear:a second stay on earth of 50,000 years is posited for the returningProphet, while 'Ali's caliphate will be only six thousand years shorter. The Mahdi himself will reign but briefly, but he is arguably the most otherworldly of all the returning Imams. The Mahdi is prophetic in the Muhammadan sense of the word, for not only does his returnprecede that of Muhammad,but he also enjoys all of the accoutrements of prophethood, including the ability to perform evidentiary miracles: Gabriel will be at his service and the angels in his employ; thejinn will be put to work at his command; fire and wind will do his bidding, and so on. Furthermore,besides sharing in the "Muhammadan light", the Mahdi also declares himself to be the embodiment of not only the other Imams but also all of the messengers and apostles of old. This is reminiscent of the passage in al-Haft in which the authorclaims that the Imam Husayn was the embodiment of Ismacil,Jesus

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and all of the prophets before him.53Here, the Mahdi becomes a composite of all of the saints, apostles and imams before him, and would make the reappearanceof Muhammadand the other Imams redundantif it were it not for the need for justice to be seen to be done by both the Imams and their enemies. Yet if the Prophet, the Mahdi and Imam Husayn appearotherworldlyin the raj'a narratives,Imam 'Ali is positively demiurgic. Included among the raj'a Traditionsof Haqq al-yaqin is a long narrationin which 'Ali claims that he and the other Imams are indeed the "names of God" (asm&-i husnd) and repositories of Divine knowledge: of of I amthe slaveof Godandthebrother theProphet of I am the trusted of God,the storehouse friend God; of Divine knowledgeand the treasury His secrets;I am the veil (hfijb) of God and the face of God to whichall mustturnif theywish to see Him;I am the of bridgeto God andthe "scales" God...I am the one who will decide who enters heaven and hell: the rewards of heaven are mine to bestow and the of punishments hell mine to mete out. I am the one who will appearframedin the disc of the sun at the and end of time... I am the Lordof the "return", the His and one to whomGodhasbequeathed knowledge name...54 His greatest That the origin of this narrationis Saffar's Basd'ir aldarajdt, repository par excellence of ghalt Traditions, should, like Majlisi's endorsement of the source as sound, come as no surprise.

"Traditionof Mufaddal".The readiness of the Imams to bear witness (shahada) to the fact that the Muslim community had been led astray after the death of the Prophet by unsuitable and illegitimate leaders, and to suffer, if need be, on behalf of their shiTa,is the key to the concept of martyrdomin Shi'ism, and martyrdomis linked inextricably to the notion of intercession (shafa'a). As Ayoub points out: of This intercession the directreward the sufferings is of the entirefamily of the Prophet,and of Husayn as especially, his statuscouldonly be attained through martyrdom.Redemption in Shi'i piety must be in understood the contextof intercession.55 The redemptive power of the suffering endured by the Imams is such that ordinary Shi'ites who share in the sorrows of the "House of 'Ali", and who themselves are indirect participantsin that suffering on account of the tribulationsof intizdr,may benefit-and indeed achieve salvation-by means of intercession.56That there is a parallel here to be drawn between the suffering of the Imams and the crucifixion of Christ is clear, given that the persecution, death and resurrection of Christ are examples of redemptive sufferingpar excellence in the Christian tradition, with the salvation of man linked inextricablywith the suffering of Christ. Naturally, orthodox Shi'ite teaching-in keeping with the Koranic approach to the Jesus story-rejects the notion that Christ was sacrificed for the sake of human salvation and, along with their Sunni co-religionists, deny that he was actually crucified at all. Instead, they believe in a quasi-docetic theory of substitution, claiming that it was a "likeness" of Christ that was nailed to the cross, while Jesus himself was "taken up" by God and preserved until his returnto earthat the end of time. Shi'ite traditionholds that this returnwill occur in conjunction with the reappearance of the Mahdi, behind whom Christ will pray, presumably as a gesture of obedience to the Imam but also as a sign of the primacy of Islam over Christianity.57 However, while the second coming of Christ receives no mention in the "Traditionalof Mufaddal", there is a quasi-christological subtext to the narrative that sets it apart from other Shi'ite narrations on the returnof the Imams and helps us to locate it within the general matrix of ghulat teachings on the raj'a. This comes in the form of a kind of substitutionaryatonement worked out on the Prophet himself, who, as the codicil

ii. The quasi-christological nature of the raj'aactors The shared features that link Shicism to aspects of Judaeo-Christian history and traditionin general, and to Catholicism in particular,are not few, and have long been the subject of debate and speculation. While superficial parallels abound--the twelve Imams of the House of 'Ali and the twelve disciples of Christ, for at example, or the seventy-two companions of .Husayn Karbalaand the seventy-two followers of Christsent out by him to preach-it is at the doctrinal level that linkages become more significant. Nowhere is this clearerthan in the general Shi'ite concept of redemptive suffering, elements of which are evident in most of the lengthier intizdr and raj'a narratives, including the

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to the "Traditionof Mufaddal"confirms, will take upon himself all of the sins of the Shi'ites so that, in forgiving him, God can forgive them. In fact, it could be said that from the "Tradition of Mufaddal" there emerges a Christ-figurethat is a composite of the three main actors in the drama of the raj'a: IHusayn as the martyr undergoing docetic death on behalf of the Shi'ite community; the Mahdi, whose "occultation" is is analogous to the ascension of Christ and whose zuh.ir the equivalent of Christ's parousia; and Muhammad, who will take on the sins of the whole world and then atone for them. The idea of docetic death, martyrdom, atonement and parousia are all features of early Kifan ghuluww as discussed earlier in the context of the Kitab al-Haft, leaving little doubt that the Mufaddal narrative stems from a similar cosmological tradition.

iii. The vilification ofAbi7 Bakr and 'Umar As the pejorative epithet rdfidi suggests, a characteristic featureof many of the early KaifanShi'ite sects and subsects was their often extreme anti-Sunni positions, particularly among those groups who would later be identified by the emerging Twelver orthodoxy as ahl alghuluww.58 As the "Tradition of Mufaddal" clearly demonstrates,the penalties meted out to Abi Bakr and 'Umar by the returning Mahdi embody a level of contempt towards the two caliphs far exceeding anything one encounters in orthodox Shi'ite works, and thus places the narrative squarely in the ghuldt tradition.59 Again, a parallel can be drawn between this to narrativeand the work erroneouslyattributed him, the Kitab al-Haft, where various enemies of the ahl al-bayt are portrayedas belonging to the "partyof Iblis" or, as punishment for their perceived transgressions, are transformedthrough metempsychosis into various subhuman and animal forms; the ram sacrificed in place of the prophet Ishmael, for example, is said to have been the embodiment of the spirit of the caliph 'Umar, while Ishmael is the embodiment of the slaughtered Imam HIusayn.60 Traces of the proto- Shi'ite belief in punishment through metempsychosis also filtered through into old Persian legends, with one story portraying the caliph 'Umar as an owl, and another depicting the murdererof Husayn b. 'Ali as a four-eyed dog, destined to roam the earth forever in search of water, presumably as a punishment for withholding at Karbala.61 water from the family of .Husayn

This is, of course, not to say that hostility to the first two caliphs is conspicuous by its absence from the scholarly output of the mainstream Twelver Shi'ite muhaddithin. That later compendia of Traditions do indeed include narrations which can be construedas antiSunni in tone is perhaps understandable,particularly when one bears in mind that opposition to the perceived usurpation of 'Alid rights by the first three "RightlyGuided" caliphs is fundamentalto all Shi'ite groups in general. However, nothing in the major canon of Shi'ite hadith materialapproachesthe severity of the stance visa-vis Abu Bakr and 'Umar adopted by the author of the "Tradition Mufaddal". of Majlisi, for his part, appears to have no problem in accepting the allegations levelled against Abi Bakr and 'Umar by the narrator of the Mufaddal narrative. Despite Majlisi's teachings on the centrality of divine justice, the serious theological implications of the events foretold in the account are not registered. That the imputation of the sins of all eternity to Abu Bakr and 'Umar calls into question the whole Koranic thesis of personal responsibility seems not to occur to the 'Allama, while what amounts in practice to the vicarious atonement of Muhammad for the sins of all devoted Shi'ite-again an apparent violation, one would assume, of a number of Koranic principles-is accepted without question. Nor, on a slightly more superficial note, does it occur to Majlisi to question whether someone with such seemingly ineluctable enmity towards 'Umar would have attributed a Tradition of this nature to the first Shi'ite Imam to be descended from the first caliph.62 Majlisi attempts to justify the diabolification of the first two caliphs in the Mufaddal Tradition through a series of terse interpolationsin the Bihdr narrativeand a considerably lengthier appraisal of the caliphs' careers in his PersianHaqq al-yaqin.63In the Bihdr, Majlisi says that the main reason for the attributionof all sins to Aba Bakr and 'Umar is that they deprived 'AlI of his right to the caliphate. As a result, all of the succeeding Imams were deprived of their rights too, a situation which culminated in the rise of tyrannical rulers such as the Umayyads and the 'Abbasids and the perpetuation of injustice and oppression until the eventual reappearance of the Mahdi. The tyranny of usurpatory rulers is, in turn, the root cause of the infidelity of all unbelievers and the vice of all sinners. Had 'All been able to secure his rights, unbelief would have eventually been extirpated and no-one would have gone astray. The

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reason that unbelief was able to take root was that Abui Bakr and 'Umar had already laid the foundations of tyrannyand oppression, and these had sullied the hearts of the people. The sins of all men are attributableto the first two caliphs, opines Majlisi, because they voiced no objection to the wrongdoings of men like themselves. And he who does not object to the sins of others is as good as guilty of them himself.64 Indeed, concludes Majlisi, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the evil spirits of Abu Bakr and 'Umar actually participatein the sins of ordinarymen, just as the pure spirits of the Imams are present in the righteous deeds of the prophets.65 Majlisi's conclusion here is little short of an endorsement for belief in metempsychosis, and as such would not look out of place in the Kitab al-Haft, or, indeed, any ghili text. In the Haqq al-yaqTn, Majlisi devotes over a hundred and thirtypages to what he constantly reminds us is but a "brief exposition" of the flaws and wrongdoings of Abu Bakr, 'Umar and 'Uthman, often adducing various Sunni sources-almost always unreferenced-in of his arguments.The main crime of Abi Bakr support is, as one might expect, the suffering he inflicted on the "House of 'Ali" when he usurped the caliphate-a role for which he was never suited, Majlist avers, on account of the fact that the Prophet had never entrusted any matterof importanceto him. He also stands accused of depriving Fatima of her inheritanceat Fadak;for giving incorrectrulings when administeringthe shari'a; and for making sure that 'Umar succeeded him, among other things.66 'Umar, for his part, fares considerably worse than Abu Bakr in Majlisi's appraisal, who considers the second caliph to have been the eminence grise whose machinations brought the first caliph to power. 'Umar, claims Majlisi, was complicit in all of the wrongdoings perpetratedby Abu Bakr, whom he had been grooming for the caliphate for years. Majlisi cites the "pen and ink" affair as proof of 'Umar's treachery: the dying Prophet had asked for writing materials in order that his nomination of 'Ali as successor might be recorded for posterity, but 'Umar dismissed his request as delirium. Then, when the Prophet died, 'Umar started the rumour that Muhammad was not dead but would soon return, simply to give Abui Bakr enough time to return to Medina to claim the caliphate and deprive 'Ali of his rights. Other wrongdoings attributed to 'Umar include his ruling that the practice of temporary marriage be discontinued; his inequitable division of

the bayt al-mal; and his lack of knowledge on issues of jurisprudence.67 In the main, the charges (mata'in) levelled by Majlisi against the three caliphs are unremarkable,and Majlisi adds little to the classical Shi'ite litany of grievances against them. It is the alacrity with which Majlisi construes each of their perceived misdemeanours as embodying either unbelief (kufr) or hypocrisy (nifaq) which prompts one to draw parallels between his discourse and the strident anti-Sunnism of the ghuldt, particularly as it is manifest in the "Tradition of Mufaddal".

iv. The imamocentricityof the raj'a Finally, there is what can only be described as a relentless imamocentricityabout the raj'a narrativesthat distinguishes them from all other eschatological traditions in Islam. For unlike the myth of the Mahdi communicated through the hadith of the ahl al-sunna, which posits a futuresaviour who will restorepeace and justice to a world filled with chaos and tyranny,the soteriological focus of the Shi'ite raj'a as portrayed by Mufaddal is on the Shi'ites alone, for whom justice is predicated solely on the restorationof the rights of the "House of 'Ali" to temporal rule. Since the oppression suffered by the Shi'ites throughouthistory is held to be a corollary of the oppression suffered by the Imams, justice will obtain only when the Imams are seen by their devotees to take revenge on their oppressors and secure their God-given rights. The key word is, of course, revenge: revenge for the usurpationof the caliphate of 'Ali; revenge for the mistreatmentof Fatima and the poisoning of Hasan; and, most crucially, revenge for the killing of Husayn. The death at Karbalais burning desire to avenge HI.usayn's arguablythe foundationstone of Ktifanghali messianism and is omnipresent in the raj'a narratives.68The "Tradition of Mufaddal" portrays an oppressed and embitteredfaith community whose history is markedout the by events in the lives of theiroppressedsaviour-saints: minoroccultation;the majoroccultation;the "tribulation" or intizdr which must be endured indefinitely; and the returnto earth of a soteriological "holy family" whose must be awaitedwith patience.The Twelver reappearance Shi'ites live in a world filled with signs and symbols of the end of history in what Jacob Neusner calls "paradigmatic time", accordingto a model which

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...obliteratesdistinctions betweenpast, present,and betweenhereandnow andthenandthere.The future, in past participates the present,the presentrecapitulates the past, and the futurefinds itself determined, predetermined really,within the same free-standing structure comprised God'sway of tellingtime.69 by Like Rabbinic Judaism, and nascent Christianity, Twelver Shi'ism constructed an entirely new way to think about times past and to keep all time-past, present and future-within a single framework. The model that was constructed consists of selected events which form a patternthat imposes orderand meaning on the chaos of what happens, be it in the past, present or future. Thus usurpation of the caliphate of 'Ali, the martyrdom of IHusayn and the promise of salvation throughthe returnof the Mahdi are the paradigmsupon which this other-than-historical method of viewing time is constructed. In the raj'a narratives,however, the salvation of the many is contingent upon the salvation of the few: the Shi'ite faithful cannot be at peace until their enemies have been seen to be punished-on earth-and their soteriological heroes avenged. That the raj'a thus undermines the objective of the resurrection and judgement as adumbratedby the Koran is clear; this is compounded by the tendency of narratorafter narrator to reinterpret resurrectionverses and presentthem as the allusions not to the salvation of mankind in general but In of the Imams in particular. short,history is their story, and the dramaof the raj'a its fitting climax.70

10. MAJLISIAND THE RAJ'A Muhammad Baqir MajlisT(1037-1110 A.H.), prolific collector of Traditions and architect of the popularisation of Twelver Shi'ism in the late Safavid period,71has often come under attack for his presentation of narrationssuch as the "Tradition Mufaddal",not least of those for whom such material is considered beyond by the pale doctrinally.72 Those generous to Majlisi-such as his biographer 'Ali Dawani, for example73-are content to conclude that his main purpose seems to have been to record all the information in his possession without necessarily expressing any opinion on its authenticity or value, and that one should in this case accept that some of his narrationswill be less reliable than others: he has, to his credit, provided a mass of

information, and it remains for astute scholars to distinguish between the sound and the weak. Nevertheless, the fact remains that while a lot of the material in the Bihdr does indeed appear without comment, Majlisi clearly feels the need to interpolate whenever the need arises, most tellingly in the context of those narrationswhich, with hindsight, are the most contentious. With regard to the "end times" Traditions which fill several of the 110 volumes of the Bihdr, his contributioncomes in the form of an official sanction for the doctrine of "the return" as foretold in the raj'a narratives,with apparentlyno concern over the issue of authorshipor authenticity. In the context of the "Traditionof Mufahddal", this apparentoversight seems particularlyconfusing. Why, when the Ottoman threat had subsided, would Majlisi have been so eager to champion the anti-Sunnismof the Mufaddal narrative? And why, when the Safavid dynasty was by Majlisi's time well established, would he find mileage in supportinga Traditionthat embodied the militant messianism of those who considered themselves to have been disenfranchised by one usurpatorydynasty after another? One possible answer to the first question may emerge from our understandingof the relativity of the notion of extremism. Traditionally,the definitional fluidity of the term ghuluww has been such that views on its nature, scope and significance have differed-often dramaticalone author to the next, according to ly-from perspective. If modem scholars with the benefit of hindsight can differ quite substantially on what constitutes ghuluww, we should not expect consistency and unanimity from scholars operating at a time when the demarcation line between the orthodox and the heterodox was still, in certain doctrinalareas at least, far from clear. Majlisi's inclusion of narrators considered by earlier scholars-al-Kashshi, for instance-to be ghali al-madhhabmay have been out of genuine belief that, at least as far as their vilification of the caliphs was concerned, their madhhab was sound and their views were not ghali in the slightest. After all, Majlisi's theology bears none of the hallmarks of the gnostic cosmology that informed the worldview of the antiSunni ghulat in second-centuryKtifa; consequently it is possible that he rejected what he personally considered beyond the pale-as he did, notoriously,with Sufismand included what he believed to be acceptable. Failing this, it is would not be unreasonableto read certain political motives into Majlisi's endorsement of

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the anti-Sunnism inherent in the raj'a narratives. In actual fact it is not at all clear thatthe threatposed by the recrudescent Sunnism which culminated in the Shah Isma'il II interlude had completely subsided, even by Majlisi's time, in which case the propagandisticvalue of the raj'a narrativeswould have been considerable.74 If Majlisi appearsmore than eager to pass comment on the diabolification of Abfi Bakr and 'Umar in the Mufaddalnarrative,he is less than forthcomingon what, in the context of his own socio-political situation, was arguably the most contentious assertion made by the anonymous apocalypt, namely that any allegiance pledged to a rulerbefore the reappearanceof the Hidden Imam is tantamountto an act of unbelief (kufr).Kulayni includes a similar Traditionattributedto Ja'faral-Sadiq in al-Kafi: beforetheriseof the Anyflagthatis raised[bya ruler] Mahdiwill have been raisedby an idol (taghi7t), and those who obey [this ruler]will have obeyed other thanGod.75 From Majlisi's interpolationsin the text of the Bihdr narrativeit is clear that for him, the despotism of all rulersbefore the advent of the Mahdi is a corollaryof the sins of the first two caliphs: had they been ready to upholdjustice and renderto 'Ali what was rightfullyhis, justice would have prevailedand despotism would never have takenroot. However, from the day thatthe caliphate was usurped until the reappearanceof the Mahdi, all temporalrulerswere destinedto be tyrantsand the Shi'ite faithful,like their Imams before them, to be oppressed. Yet the idea of a continuum of tyrannyand injustice, while totally congruous with the twin principles of intizar and raj'a, sits uncomfortablyalongside Majlisi's unquestioning acceptance of the legitimacy of Safavid kingship and the lavish praise that he showers on its rulers as defenders of the Islamic faith.76 Majlisi attemptsto solve the problem of legitimacy through an eisegetical sleight-of-hand:interpretingcertain symbols and motifs of the raj'a narratives as alluding to the Safavid dynasty, he elevates his royal masters to major players in the dramaof the Twelver eschaton. The introduction to his Chahardah hadith, a tract on the rise of the Mahdi, is illuminating in this regard: It is obviousto all men of discernment it is the that exaltedSafaviddynasty whichwe mustthankfor the continued existenceof the gloriousreligionof their

illustriousforefathers this land; all believersare in to indebted themon this account.It is becauseof [the Safaviddynasty]thatI was ableto bringtogether the Traditions the Immaculate of Imamsas the Biharalanwar.And it was while I was engagedin this work that I discovered Traditions which the Imams two in the rise of this exaltedrule and gave to all predicted Shi'ites the good news that this glorious dynasty wouldbe joined(ittisJl)in time to the government of the HiddenImam...77 The first Traditionclaimed by Majlisi to foretell the rise of the Safavids talks of the Mahdist rising in Khurasan, and a man "from our line" emerging from Gilan to join him, with the "flags of the Turks" flying in support. According to Majlisi, the "man from our line" is none other than Shah Ismdil I.78In the second, "a people in the East" rise up in order to claim their rights to the caliphate but are unable to do so until the Mahdi reappears.79 Ignoringthe fact that the Safavids rose from Azerbaijan,Majlisi claims thatthe Traditionrefersto the rise and rule of the Safavid dynasty, which will precede and indeed precipitate the rule and the rise of the Mahdi.80Furthermore,in his Persian translation of the Tradition, included in the Chahardah hadith, "the man from our line" appearsas "a king shall rise from among us", thus incorporatingthe Safavids into the "last days" scenario, sacralising their role and giving their rule a veneer of inevitability. The inter-dependence of Shah and shaykh was clearly not lost on Majlisi, and any Traditionsthat could be used to bolster one would automatically bolster the other. In championing the raj'a, Majlisi was indirectly strengthening his own position and, by virtue of their role as interpretersof the Imami Traditions, the position of the 'ulamd as de jure guardiansof the Twelver faith. In short, Majlisi, wittingly or otherwise, incorporated into his work a number of narratives of highly dubious provenancebearing all the hallmarksof secondcentury ghuluww. Had the inclusion of such material been an act of oversight, or for illustrative or didactic purposes alone, Majlisi's position would have been unproblematic. However, the fact that he not only comments favourably on such narratives but actually augments them with lengthy interpolations of a similar tenor cannot but lead to the conclusion that he himself was, at least as far as the raj'a narrativesare concerned, ghali al-madhhab according to the criteriaemployed by al-KashshI.

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11. SUMMATION AND CONCLUSIONS The "Tradition of Mufaddal" is one of a number of Twelver narrationswhich are purportedto foretell the events of the raj'a, the returnto earth of the Imams of the "House of 'Ali" during the parousia of the Mahdi at the end of time. Belief in the raj'a has traditionallybeen considered part and parcel of belief in the Twelver Shi'ite imamate, and Traditions relating to this theme can be found in many works of classical Shi'ite scholarship, including the canonical "four books" of Twelver Shi'ite hadith and a number of works of jurisprudenceand exegesis. With the currentgrowth of militant messianism in world religions in general, the notion of the soteriological hero has arguably greater immediacy than at any point, and nowhere is this felt more keenly than among the Twelver Shi'ite community, for whom the continued occultation of the Hidden Imam has socio-political connotations of considerable import. While it is impossible to say with complete confidence that Mufaddal is the source of the views expressed in the Tradition which bears his name, we have no problem in ascribing the narrationto him, particularly in the light of his brief sojourn in the ghulat camp, from which period this curio may well stem. it Furthermore, would appearthat most, if not all, of the narrationson the raj'a included in the major compendia of Twelver Traditionsbear the hallmarksof second- and third-centuryKifan ghuluww. This is compounded by the fact that many of the figures who transmittedthe raj'a narrativeswere considered unreliable,mendacious or religiously corrupt by later Twelver authorities. Mufaddal b. 'Umar, the likely source of the Tradition which famously bears his name, is one such figure. Despite this, contemporaryTwelver scholars are almost without exception silent on the issue of the provenance of the raj'a narratives and its precise doctrinal status, and the returnof the Imams at the end of time remains a potent and popular theme in contemporary Twelver theological, devotional and, more recently, sociopolitical literature. The accusations of ghuluww levelled against them by later scholars notwithstanding, Mufaddal b. 'Umar and his Ktifan coevals have retained an importantplace for themselves in the history of Shi'ite Traditions. For while much of the material narrated through their mediation exhibits, even to the relatively untrainedeye, featuresand characteristicsthat would seem to put them

beyond the pale of modem Twelver Shi'ism, and which, it may be argued, deserves the retrospectivebrandingof "extremism", there are many Traditions narrated by them which are most certainly construable as "orthodox".Indeed, it may be argued that to discard all of the Traditions narrated by them simply on the grounds that they were later identified as ghulat would be to undermine the very foundations of Shi'ite Traditionand law. The inability, or unwillingness, of later and contemporary Shi'ite scholars to make some definitive announcementon the authenticityand value of material transmittedby narratorsknown to be ghali al-madhhab may stem from an innate reluctance on their part to risk the baby being thrown out with the bathwater.For while to pronounce Mufaddal's raj'a narrativesunsound while championing his Tawhid or the Treatise on the Myrobalan Fruit is perfectly acceptable to a Shi'ite scholar who is fully aware of the situation attending Mufaddal's life and career, it may not be acceptable to the generality of the Shi'ite faithful, who are not given kindly to mixed messages concerning their scholars. This perhaps goes some way to explaining why few contemporary Shi'ite scholars are ready to reject Mufaddal and his raj'a narrativeout of hand, preferring to classify belief in the returnof the Imams as "optional" and leaving the issue of authenticityto the individual.81 More important, however, is the danger that a rejection of the raj'a narratives would pose for the soteriology of Twelver Shi'ism in general. For while a disambiguation of the raj'a narrativeswould indeed be welcome, the returnof the Imams is linked so inextricably with the returnof the Mahdi, both from the point of view of concept and shared chains of transmission, that to question one would, inevitably perhaps, be to question the other. And given the socio-political importance of the Mahdi for the guardians and gatekeepers of Twelver Shi'ism-the culam--the chances of such questions being asked in the near future remain slim.

Notes
SAllama
2

Muhammad Baqir Majlisi, Haqq al-yaqin 2001), p. 351. (Isfahan, Ibid.,pp. 244-45. Majlisi'saccountsinglesout 'Umaras had that of the instigator therumour Muhammad not died. that He also maintains thiswas a ploy to buytime forAba

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Bakr in order that the lattermight returnto Medina to lay claim to the caliphate. 3 Muhammad IHasanal-Nawbakhti, Firaq al-shi'a , ed. H. Ritter (Istanbul, 1931), p. 22. 4 For examples of the PropheticTraditionson the Mahdi in Sunni collections, see Muhammad b. 'Isa al-Tirmidhi, Sunan al-Tirmidhi(Cairo, 1356 A.H.), vol. IV, pp. 505-6. For an account of the Mahdist claims surroundingIbn alHanafiyya, see Jassim M. Hussein, The Occultation of the TwelfthImam (Tehran,n.d.), p. 13. 5 On the Jardiyya, see Nawbakhti, Firaq, p. 62; for the Ndwusiyya and the Waqifiyya, see ibid., pp. 67, 80-83. See also Hussein, op. cit., p. 3. 6 For the Mahdist claims of the Muhammadiyya, see M. Karim Khurasani, Tanbihat al-jaliya ft kashf asrar albatiniyya (Najaf, 1972) pp. 41-42. For the claims concerning the Eleventh Imam, see Nawbakhti, op. cit., pp. 96-97; and Hussein, op. cit., p. 14. 7 'Allama Majlisi, Bihar al-anwar, (Beirut, 1404 A.H.). The whole of Volume LIII of the I10-volume Bihdr is given over to the occultation of the Hidden Imam, the "periodof expectation" (intizar) of the Shi'ites and the reappearance of the Mahdi. 8 Majlisi, Bihdr, vol. LIII, pp. 39-144. Majlisi uses approximately thirty-one different classical works as sources of the 163 raj'a Traditions in his collection. Of these Traditions, over a quarterare from al-Saffar's Basd'ir aldarajat, narratedmostly by Kufan followers of the Fifth and Sixth Imams known or suspected to be ghali such as Zurara,Abii Basir, Muhammadb. Sinan and Mufaddal b. 'Umar himself (See below, n. 25). Also included among these are three Traditions narrated by Abu 'l-Khattab, founder of the heretical Khattabiyya. 9 Ibid., vol. LIII, pp. 1-39. 10 Examples of Koranic verses presented in the Bihar as alluding to raj'a include 50:41-42; 43:4; 10:45; 79:6; 80:17-23 and 36:52. 11 Majlisi, Bihdr, vol. LIII, p. 44. 12 Ibid., pp. 114-15. 13 Ibid., p. 106. 14 Ibid., pp. 106-7. 15 Ibid., pp. 74-75.
16 Ibid.,p.44. 17 Ibid., p. 103. 18 Ibid., p. 104. 19 Ibid., p. 93.
20

21 22 23

one modem writer, the raj'a of ordinary Shi'ite believers will be a matter of personal choice. See 'Ali-Rida Rijali Tihrani,Sad pursash wa pasukh p~irdmin-iImdm-i Zamdn (Tehran, 1997), pp. 262-63. Majlisi, Bihdr, vol. LIII, p. 71.

See Koran22:78.
In certain Muslim communities, the mystical Koranic figure known as Khidr is often associated with St. George, who is revered under the name "Jirjis" Christiansliving by in Muslim societies, particularly in the Levant. The inclusion of Jirjis, together with Daniel and Salman alFarsi is one possible indicationof Tradition'sghali origins. Fadak was a tract of land near Khaybar seized during the battle there and given as booty to Muhammad. Upon the Prophet's death, the land became the cause of a dispute between Muhammad's daughter, Fatima, and the caliph Abu Bakr.The Shi'a believe that Fadak had been inherited by Fatima but was being withheld from her by the caliph. See Majlisi, Haqq al-yaqin, pp. 206-22. This suggests, of course, that any ascription of Imami Traditions to the ghuldt must be informed by the realisation that ghuluww is not monolithic, and that there are many shades and degrees of pro-Imami "extremism", particularly where its stance vis-a-vis Sunnism and the first two caliphs is concerned. Three examples immediately spring to mind: Zurara b. A'yan; Muhammad b. Muslim al-Ta'iff; and Abu Basir Layth al-Muradi. Zurarahas always posed a problem for Shi'ite scholars, for while he is one of the most prolific narrators of Traditions from al-Baqir and al-Sadiq, the Imams are reputed to have pronounced takfir on him. According to al-Kashshi, had it not been for Zurara, the Traditions of Muhammad al-Baqir would never have survived (for Zurara'sbiography,see al-Kashshi, Rijdl, pp. 133-60). Muhammad b. Muslim, who claimed to have heard 30,000 Traditionsfrom al-Baqir and 16,000 from alSadiq, is also accepted by the majority of the Twelver scholars as a reliable narratordespite apparently having been cursed by al-Sadiq (see al-Kashshi, op. cit., pp. 161-69 ); Abi Basir is another extremely prolific Ktifan narratorand along with Zurarais credited with preserving the legacy of both al-Baqir and al-Sadiq, despite being considered untrustworthy by biographers such as alGhada'iri(see ibid., pp. 169-74). Ibn Dawid al-Hilli, al-Rij/l (Tehran, 1383 A.H.), pp. 518-19; Ahmad b. Husayn al- Ghad'iri, al-Rijal (Qum, 1364 A.H.),vol. VI, p. 164. Andrew Newman, The Formative Period of Twelver Shi'ism (Richmond, 2000), pp. 64-65; 'Arif Tamir and

24

25

26

27

Ibid., p. 97. It is not clear whether the believers in the Imam will have any say in whether they are suddenly plucked from heaven and sent back to earth.According to

28

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29

Father 'Abduh Khalifa [eds.], Kitib al-Haft wa 'l-azilla (Beirut, 1960), pp. 20-23. For an overview of the teachings of this sect, see W. in Madelung, art. "Khattabiyya" EI2.

and Husayn, and who believed in Fatima, H.jasan See Madelung, art. "Mukhammisa",in metempsychosis.
49 50

30 31 32 33 34

Ibid.
Tamirand Khalifa, op. cit., p. 21.

Ibid. Ibid.
Muhammadb. 'Umar al-Kashshi,Ikhtiydrma'rifatal-rijdl, abridged by Muhammad b. Hasan b. 'Ali al-Tisi (Mashhad, 1969), pp. 321-22. Ibid., pp. 322-23. Ibid., pp. 327-28. Ibid., pp. 326-27. Two of al-Sadiq's companions complained to him that Mufaddal was consorting with gamblers, drinkers and libertines, and persuaded the Imam to write a letter to Mufaddal, chastising him for his excesses and inviting back to the fold of true belief. The Imam wrote something, sealed it and gave it to the companions to take to Mufaddal. The latter,upon opening it, found that al-Sadiq had merely written him a shopping list, although whether he revealed this to the companions is unclear. See al-Kashshi, op. cit., p. 326. Ibid,. pp. 321-23.
51

52

35 36 37 38

EI2. Tamirand Khalifa, op. cit., p. 21. Heinz Halm, Shi'ism (Edinburgh, 1991), p. 157. On Muhammadb. Sinan (died c. 220/835), see al-Kashshi, op. cit., pp. 506-9. One of al-Kashshi's narratorsdescribes Sinan as "a well-known liar". Ahmad b. 'Ali al-Najdshi, Rijdl al-Najashi (Qum, 1407 A.H.), p. 328. Indeed, there is much to suggest that al-Haft is a much later fabrication. The faltering grammar and often garbled syntax of the text suggest a non-Arabicprovenance; this is supportedby the fact that in the manuscript,all instances of marbiztaactually appear as td mamdiida, which would tad suggest a Persian or Persianateprovenance for this piece. I am indebtedto FahadAlenezi of the University of Durham for his observations in this regard. Tamirand Khalifa, op. cit., pp. 79-80. Majlisi, Haqq al-yaqin, pp. 353-55. Mahmoud Ayoub, Redemptive Suffering in Islam (The Hague, 1978), p. 15. The key role of the Imams as intercessorshelps to explain not only the centrality of martyrdom to the Twelver mindset but also the phenomenon of ziydra and the numerous intercessory supplications and petitionary prayers that one finds in Shi'ite devotional literature.A popular example is the du'd-i tawassul, for which, see Shaykh 'Abbas Qummi, Kulliyyat-i mafttihh al-jindn (Tehran,n.d.), pp. 231-36. Muhammad b. Ibr-ahim al-Nu'mani, al-Ghayba (Tehran, of 1397 A.H.), p. 57. One of the narrators the Traditionwas b. Ibr-ahim Ishaq al-Nahawandi (d. 286/899). Considered unreliable and "religiously suspect" by Ibn Dawad, Nahawandi appears as narrator of a number of the occultationTraditionscollated by Nu'mAni.See Ibn Ddawad al-Hilli, al-Rijal (Tehran,1383 A.H.), p. 415. See E. Kohlberg, art. "al-Rafida",in EI2. By "orthodox Shi'ite works" here is meant the canonical "four books" (al-kutub al-arba'a) of Shi'ite hadith and "eight works" (al-'ulumal-thamaniya)of rijal, the authors of which have become, by default,the unofficial arbitersof what is orthodox in Twelver Shi'ism.
Tamir and Khalifa, op. cit., p. 79. H. Masse, Croyances et coutumespersanes (Paris, 1938), pp. 185-86. Ja'far al-S~adiq'smother, Farwa bint al-Qa~sim,was the ofAba Bakr. great-granddaughter Majlisi, HIaqqal-yaqin, pp. 170-292.

53
54

55
56

39 40 41 42 43

Ibid.,p. 321.
Newman, op. cit., p. 84. Majlisi, Bihdr, vol. III, pp. 57-151. Ibid., pp. 152-98. The myrobalan or Indian gall nut (terminalia reticulata) is a tree found in many parts of India. Its fruit, which has is said to have restorative properties, is among the combination of three herbs or "triphala"of Ayurvedic mecine. It is used in asthma, sore throat, vomiting, eye diseases and problems affecting the heart. An alternativemeaning of al-haft is "depression",as in a hollow or hole in the ground where rain may gather. However, "heptad"would seem to be a more appropriate choice, given the book's indirect links to the Isma'iliyya. Tamima Bayhom-Daou, "The second-century Si'ite Gulat: were they really Gnostic?", in Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies V (2003), pp. 15-17. Tamirand Khalifa, op. cit., pp. 73-74. Ibid., p. 79. On docetism in the context of the death of Husayn b. 'Ali, see also D.K. Crowe, "The death of alb. 'Ali and early Shi'i views of the Imamate",in AlI.usayn Serdt XII (1986), pp. 82-110. Al-Mukhammisa is a term used to describe a number of disparate ghali groups who deified Muhammad, 'Ali,

57

44

58 59

45

46 47

60

61

62

48

63

THE "TRADITION OF MUFADDAL" AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE RAJ'A

195

64 65 66

67 68

69

70

71

72

Majlisi, Bihar, vol. LIII, p. 37. Ibid. For Majlisi's accusations against Abu Bakr, see Haqq alyaqin, pp. 170-234. Ibid., pp. 234-73. Few of the raj'a narrativesrecorded in the Bihdr or Haqq al-yaqtn fail to mention that the main objective of the Imams' return is to take revenge on their enemies. See al-yaqin, pp. 360-72. Majlisi, H.aqq Jacob Neusner, "Paradigmaticversus historical thinking: the case of Rabbinic Judaism", in History and Theory XXXVI, no. 3 (1997) pp. 354-55. For examples of Koranic verses reinterpretedas allusions to rajca rather than resurrection,see Colin Turner,Islam Without Allah? The Rise of Religious Externalism in Safavid Iran (Richmond, 2000), pp. 220-22. A discussion of Majlisi's life, works and place in Shi'ite history is beyond the scope of this article. The reader is referredto Turner,op. cit., pp. 148-86. 'Ali Shari'atiwas apparentlymotivated by what he saw as the superstition, obscurantism and sectarian hostility evident in Majlisi's Bihar to write his iconoclastic Tashayyu'-i'alawi wa tashayyu'i- safawi (Tehran, 1974). See Turner,op. cit., pp. 232-38.

73 74

75

76

77

78 79

'Ali Dawani, Mahdi-i maw'iad(Tehran, 1972), p. 90. On the Sunnism of Shah Isma'il II and his supporters,see Shaykh 'AbdallAh Afandi al-Isfahani, Riyd4 al-'ulamd (Qum, 1401 A.H.), vol. IV, p. 32; and IskandarMunshi, Tarikh-i'dlam-drd, tr. R.M. Savory (Boulder, Colorado, 1978), vol. I, pp. 237-46. Muhammad b. Ya'qUbKulayni, al-Kafi (Tehran, 1986), recorded in the chain of vol. VIII, p. 295. The first narrator transmission of this Tradition is Abi Basir, an alleged member of the ghuldt. See above, n. 25. For Majlisi's stance vis-a-vis temporalauthorityin general, and Safavid kingship in particular,see Turner,op. cit., pp. 208-15. Muhammad Taqi Danishpazhih (ed.), Fihrist-i ihdd'i-i dqd-i Mishkdt bi kitdbkhdna-i kitdbkhdna-i danishgdh-i Tihran(Tehran, 1960), vol. III, pp. 1212-13. Majlisi, Bihdir,vol. LII, pp. 236-37. Ibid., p. 243.

80

Ibid.
University of Durham,for his help in throwing light on the ambivalence shown by authorities both classical and modem towards the issue of authenticityin the context of the raj'a.

81 I am indebted to HIujjat Muhammad Mukhtari, al-Islmrn