Agents of the Hidden Imam
Forging Twelver Shi‘ism, 850-950 CE

Offers fascinating insights into the careers of the first leaders of Twelver Shi?ism: agents who claimed to speak for the 'hidden Imam'.

Edmund Hayes (Author)

9781108834391, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 February 2022

292 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.53 kg

'An exciting, path-breaking book that examines the emergence of Twelver Sh??ism through the lens of the forgotten actors at the heart of the story: the agents of the imams. Part social history, part history of religion, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the many different kinds of Islam that developed in the early period.' Christian C. Sahner, University of Oxford

In 874 CE, the eleventh Imam died, and the Imami community splintered. The institutions of the Imamate were maintained by the dead Imam's agents, who asserted they were in contact with a hidden twelfth Imam. This was the beginning of 'Twelver' Shi?ism. Edmund Hayes provides an innovative approach to exploring early Shi?ism, moving beyond doctrinal history to provide an analysis of the socio-political processes leading to the canonisation of the Occultation of the twelfth Imam. Hayes shows how these agents cemented their authority by reproducing the physical signs of the Imamate, including protocols of succession, letters and the alm taxes. Four of these agents were ultimately canonised as “envoys” but traces of earlier conceptions of authority remain embedded in the earliest reports. Hayes dissects the complex and contradictory Occultation narratives to show how, amidst the claims of numerous actors, the institutional positioning of the envoys allowed them to assert a quasi-Imamic authority in the absence of an Imam.

Introduction
1. The rise of the agents in the late Imamate (830-874 CE)
2. The crisis before the crisis. The feud between Imamic contenders and the power of the agents
3. Crisis! The mother, the brother, the concubine and the politics of inheritance
4. The agents of the N??iya in the era of perplexity
5. The creation of an envoy: The rise of Ab? Ja?far al-?Amr?
6. Rise and fall: Ibn Raw?, Shalmagh?n?, and rise and collapse of the envoyship
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Islamic studies [JFSR2], Islam [HRH], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]