Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah

In 899 CE, Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah (born Abdullah Sa'id) (r. 909–934), the head of the Isma'ili sect at the time, declared himself to be the Mahdi.^[8] The first caliph of the Fatimid state, established in 909, was one of only two claimants who succeeded in establishing a state. (See Muhammad Ahmad below). His authority as Mahdi was invoked to seize central Syria in 903, but were crushed by Iraqi troops.^[9] His preacher/Da'i Abu 'Abdullah Al-Husayn Al-Shi'i helped secure for him parts of north Africa using the support of the Berber locals some years later. The date of the apocalypse that was to follow the arrival of the Mahdi was "indefinitely postponed",^[9] and Abdullah was unable to deploy any of the supernatural powers he (in theory) possessed as Mahdi – those who insisted he use them were dismissed and sometimes put to death.^[9]

The Fatimids eventually "abandoned millenarian rhetoric" completely and devoted themselves to empire building.^[9] They built Cairo as capital in Egypt and their descendants continued to rule as Caliphs. The sixth caliph, Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, was known for "unpredictable commands" (destruction of churches, nocturnal ceasefires, liquidation of all dogs, prohibition of music) carried out with extreme violence – and occasionally rescinded with equal suddenness". His impulsiveness was believed by some to be divinely inspired and inspired the Druze religion,^[10] adherents of whom believe he is in occultation and due to return as Mahdi on Judgment Day.

The dynasty ended when Salah-ud-Din Ayubi (also called Saladin) took over Egypt and ended the Fatimid state. He imprisoned the last Fatimid Caliph and his family in the Fatimid Palace until death.

Kadu ibn Mu'arik al-Mawati

A young Kutama Berber, al-Mawati was proclaimed as the Mahdi by disillusioned adherents of al-Mahdi Billah, in the aftermath of the purge of Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i and anti-Kutama riots in the cities of Ifriqiya. The Fatimid heir-apparent, al-Qa'im was given command of an army sent against the rebels. On 21 June 912, the Fatimid army decisively defeated the rebels near Mila. The anti-Mahdi al-Mawati and the other rebel leaders were soon captured, and prominently featured in al-Qa'im's triumphal entry into Kairouan in autumn.^[11]

Abu'l-Fadl al-Isfahani

Abu'l-Fadl al-Isfahani, also known as the Isfahani Mahdi, was a young Persian man who in 931 CE was declared to be "God incarnate" by Qarmatian leader of Bahrayn, Abu Tahir al-Jannabi. This new apocalyptic leader, however, caused great disruption by rejecting traditional aspects of Islam, and promoting ties to the old Persian religion of Zoroastrianism;^[12] "urging his followers" to denounce Abrahamic prophets and "celebrate fire" as Zoroastrians did. Abu Tahir disavowed him as an "imposter" and had him put to death.^[8]

Muhammad al-Mahdi Billah

In the summer of 945, during the Kharijite revolt of Abu Yazid against the Fatimid Caliphate, a man claiming to be an Abbasid prince rose in revolt against Abu Yazid at Béja. He used a black banner and claimed to be the Mahdi, with the name Muhammad al-Mahi Billah. Very quickly he was arrested by Abu Yazid's son, Ayyub, and interrogated. After he was tested about his knowledge of Baghdad and proved to be unable to respond, he was crucified in front of the city gate.^[13]

Muhammad ibn al-Mustakfi

Muhammad ibn al-Mustakfi was the son and designated heir of the Abbasid caliph al-Mustakfi, he assumed the mantle of the Mahdi in a conspiracy to overthrow the Buyid Emirs and their puppet caliph, al-Muti.

Hassan II of Alamut

In the late eleventh century, as the Fatimid dynasty relinquished any supranatural claims or interest in millenarianism, the Isma'ilis suffered another split. The head of the Fatimid army (Al-Afdal), sidelined the son designated heir (Abu Mansur Nizar) of the deceased caliph for a more compliant son-in-law.^[10] A revolt led by Nizar was crushed, but in Iran the commander of Isma'ili forces, Hasan-i-Sabbah, broke from the Fatimids in Cairo and commenced a reign of terror against both leaders of the Sunni Abbasids and the Fatimid court in Cairo from his citadel in Alamut.

In the middle of Ramadan in 559 AH (1164 CE), a successor of Hasan-i-Sabbah, Hassan II gathered his followers and announced to "jinn, men and angels" that the Hidden Imam had freed them "from the burden of the rules of Holy Law". With that, the assembled took part in a ritual violation of Sharia, a banquet with wine, in violation of the Ramadan fast, with their backs turned towards Medina.^[14] Hassan II explained that he had abrogated the exoteric practice of Sharia and stressed on the esoteric (batini) side of the laws. And "while outwardly he was known as the grandson of Buzurgumid", in this esoteric reality, Hasan claimed "he was the Imam of the time" (the last Imam of Shia Islam).^[15] Observance of Islamic rites was punishable by the utmost severity; Resistance was nonetheless deep, and Hasan was stabbed to death by his own brother-in-law. Islamic law was reintroduced after the death of his son.^[16]

Ibn Tumart

In Sunni Morocco, Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Ibn Tumart (c. 1078/1080 – c. 1130), sought to reform Almoravid decadence in the early 12th century. Rejected in Marrakech and other cities, he turned to his Masmuda tribe in the Atlas Mountains for support. Because of their emphasis on the unity of God, his followers were known as Al Muwahhidun ('unitarians', in English; Almohads in the corrupted Spanish form).^[17] Ibn Tumart rejected all other Islamic legal schools, and saw in the lax morality of the ruling Almorvid dynasty signs of that The Hour of Judgement was nigh.^[18]

Although declared mahdi by his followers in 1121 CE,^[19] and calling himself imam and masum (literally in Arabic: innocent or free of sin), ibn Tumart consulted with a council of ten of his oldest disciples, and conform traditional Berber representative government, later added an assembly of fifty tribal leaders.^{[citation needed]} The Almohad rebellion began in 1125 with attacks on Moroccan cities, including Sus and Marrakech.^{[citation needed]}

His failure to capture Marrakech in 1130 "undermined his messianic pretentions to invulnerability", and he died shortly after designated Abd al Mumin his successor with the title of Caliph.^[19] Abd al Mumin claimed universal leadership in Islam – and placed members of his own family in power, converting the system into a traditional sultanate.^[19]

Shia in Iran and Iraq

With the Mongol invasion of the eastern Muslim world in the 13th century, many Muslims were killed, and Iran and Iraq came under Mongol control. By the early 14th century Shi'a in Iran and Iraq began "clandestine dissidence". For example, in Hilla, a center of Shi'i learning in central Iraq, each day from afternoon to evening prayer, 100 townsmen participated in a ritual appealing to the Mahdi to reappear. Drums were beaten, trumpets and bugles blown, a saddled horse for the Mahdi led to the sanctuary of the 'Master of the Hour' where the Shiʿa townsmen would cry: 'In the name of Allah, Master of the Hour, in the name of Allah, come, for disorder is rampant and iniquity rife! This is the moment for you to appear! Through you, Allah will make known the true [and separate] from the false!" Similar messianic events occurred in Iran.^[20]

Fazlallah al-Astarbadi

After the Mongol khanate disintegrated after the death of Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan in 1335, itinerant brotherhoods propagated "popular spirituality", with the "foremost" group, the Shaykhiyya-Juryya, announcing the imminent coming of the Mahdi and calling on Shia to prepare for his arrival by taking up arms. They were subdued by Timur from 1381 to 1392. Messianic agitation was taken up in 1386 by a dream interpreter by the name of Fazlallah al-Astarbadi who proclaimed himself the "manifestation of divine glory" and possessing the attributes of the "master of the Age", including the ability to discern hidden meanings of letters of the alphabet (hurūfiyya). He was executed in 1394, but his disciples "venerated him as a divine incarnation" and awaited his return under the signs of the "Master of the Sword". This sect was "hounded on all sides for heresy" in Iran and Syria, and gradually assimilated into the Sufi brotherhood of the Baktashis in Anatolia.^[21]

Nurbakhsh

A generation after the execution of Fazlallah al-Astarbadi in the early fifteenth century, Ishaq al-Khuttalani, a Sufi master of the Kubrawiyya order in what is now Tajikistan, proclaimed one of his followers, Nurbakhsh (the Gift of Light), the awaited Messiah (i.e. Mahdi). This movement "grew in size and influence", staged an unsuccessful revolt, whereupon Khuttalani and dozens of followers – but not Nurbakhsh – were executed in 1425. Nurbakhsh eventually established his own order in Kurdistan "but was forced to publicly renounce any claims to the imamate."^[22]

Muhammad Ibn Falah

Another example of how a "millenarian insurrection " gave rise "to a new dynastic power"^[23] is Muhammad ibn Falah (1400–1465/66). He proclaimed himself the wali (friend) of the Mahdi circa 1415 CE. (The first Imam, Ali is regarded by Shiʿa as the wali of Allah.) By 1436 his following had grown in southwestern Iran and he now claimed to "the seventh imam's ultimate incarnation" and delivered "an address of the Mahdi".^[22] His sect became known as Musha'sha'iyyah. Opponents of his heresy arose in holy cities of Iraq, but his power was such that he destroyed the Hilla and Najaf, even desecrating Ali's tomb. He also established an emirate in Khurzestan passed on to his descendants, who became provincial governors after the emirate was conquered by the Safavids in 1508.^[24]

Syed Muḥammad Jaunpuri

Syed Muhammad Jaunpuri (1443–1505) was born in Jaunpur (modern-day Uttar Pradesh, North India).^[25] His father, Syed Muhammad Abdullah was a descendant of the seventh imam, Musa Al-Kazim.

He (Syed Muhammad Jaunpuri) claimed to be the Mahdi-e-Maoud on three occasions:

1. Between the rukn and maqam in front of the Kaaba in Masjid al-Haram (901 AH)
2. Taj Khan Salaar Mosque, Ahmedabad, Gujarat (903 AH)
3. Badli, Gujarat, where he attracted a large amount of followers but opposition from the ulema. (905 AH)

His five deputies were: 1) Bandagi Meeran Syed Mahmood also known as Sani-e-Mahdi, 2) Bandagi Miyan Syed Khundameer also known as Siddiq-e-Vilayat, 3) Bandagi Miyan Sha-e-Neymath also known as Miqraaz-e-Biddath, 4) Bandagi Miyan Sha-e-Nizam also known as Dariya-e-Wahdath-o-Ashaam, 5) Bandagi Miyan Sha-e-Dilawar also known as Maqbool-e-Mahdi.

Syed Muhammad Jaunpuri died in 1505 AD, aged 63, at Farah, Afghanistan. His followers, known as Mahdavis, continue to exist and are centred around the Indian city of Hyderabad, although there are Mahdavi communities in other parts of the world migrated from Hyderabad India Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, as well as in Pakistan and overseas in the United States, Canada, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Africa and the United Kingdom.^[25]

Sheikh Bedreddin

Sheikh Bedreddin (Ottoman Turkish: شیخ بدرالدین; 1359–1420), full name Sheikh Bedreddin Mahmud Bin Israel Bin Abdulaziz, was an influential mystic, scholar, theologian, and revolutionary. He is best known for his role in a 1416 revolt against the Ottoman Empire, in which he and his disciples posed a serious challenge to the authority of Sultan Mehmed I and the Ottoman state.

Ahmed ibn Abi Mahalli

Unsuccessfully challenging the Saʿdid dynasty was another figure making use of Mahdi title, Ahmed ibn Abi Mahalli (Arabic: ابن أبي محلي); n (1559–1613). A Moroccan Imam and the Sufi leader, who proclaimed himself Mahdi in 1610 after denouncing his Sufi master as an innovator and reviling the ruling Sa'did dynasty for alleged religious laxness and failure to attack Western colonialists.^[27] He was took the city of Marrakesh in the south of Morocco, but after he was killed in combat in 1613 his followers saw "their faith in his invincibility disproven" and fled. His head was severed and hung from the city ramparts until it disintegrated, but despite this graphic evidence "part of the population" in the region refused to accept his death and believed that he "had hidden himself from public view."^[28]

Shah Ismail I Safavid

Nurbakhsh influence was felt in the Safavid dynasty (1501–1736). The dynasty was named after a Sufi order (Safaviyya) that converted to Shiʿism in the fifteenth century, (although the dynasty was "probably of Kurdish origin"). The Safavids depended for military power on "fanatical Turkmen tribes", known as "Qizilbash", who were accused of paganism and shamanism and even ritual cannibalism. After its leader (Haydar) died in combat, he was succeeded by his twelve-year-old son Ismail I.^[23]

"Strongly influenced" by one of Nurbakhsh's disciples, Ismail used eschatology to justify the savagery of Qizilbash, claiming he was the Mahdi.^[23] The ferocious Qizilbash took successively Baku, Tabriz, Isfahan, Shiraz, Baghdad, but were routed in 1514 by the Ottoman artillery.

"Unable any longer to pose as the Mahdi, he now claimed to be an ambassador of the Hidden Imam. The Anatolian origins of the Safavid family were conveniently forgotten and replaced by a prophetic ancestry that allowed the dynasty to represent itself as the instrument of the twelfth imam during the course of the Great Occultation. A minority of the Qizilbash nonetheless continued to consider the shah to be the Mahdi himself."^[17]

This heresy was suppressed by Ismail's son and successor.^[23] Today, he is revered by many Azeris, Turkmen and Kurds, especially by the Alevi sect of Islam and in the religious practice of the Shabaks.

Muhammad Nur Pak

This section does not cite any sources. (April 2024)

The Mahdi and final Prophet of Zikrism who has revealed new Scriptures as Ta'wil of Quran and Other Scriptures called Burhan or Kanzul Asrar and was born in 1570, nothing is known about his life to scholars but Zikris have a hidden Scripture about his life called Mahdi Nameh in Balouchi, they have many other hidden Scriptures about the lifes of Prophets and their teachings which all are secretive and hidden and scholars today have only few sources about them.

Ahmad al-Mansur

Ahmad al-Mansur (1578–1603), sultan of Morocco. The jurist Ahmad bin Muhammad bin al-Siddeeq wrote a treatise exclusively on the Mahdi, presenting a hundred arguments in support of the Mahdism of al-Mansur.^[29][30]

Ahmed ibn Abi Mahalli

Ahmed ibn Abi Mahalli (1559–1613), from the south of Morocco, was a Qadi and religious scholar who proclaimed himself mahdi and led a revolution (1610–13) against the reigning Saadi dynasty.

Āghā Muḥammad Rezā

Agha Muhammad Reza, a Shia Muslim of Iranian ancestry living in the Sylhet region of Bengal rose to prominence as a Sufi pir. He gained a large following of thousands and started a movement in 1799 by invading the Kachari Kingdom and claiming independence from the British. Declaring himself the Mahdi, he was defeated after a number of battles against the East India Company. He escaped but was later caught and sent for lifetime imprisonment in Calcutta.

Bu Ziyan

One Mahdi who did not aim to reinvent Islam but to uphold it against kafir invaders, was Bu Ziyan. In 1849, Muhammad appeared to him in a series of dreams, commanding him "three times" to "assume the duties of the Mahdi" and drive the French colonialists from Algeria. Bu Ziyan had served as representative of the Anti-French leader Abd al-Qadir, but now led an uprising with the help of many members of the strongest Sufi brotherhood, Rahmaniyya. The French besieged their headquarters at the oasis of Zaʿatsha for 52 days, breaking through and annihilated the population. Bu Ziyan's head was mounted on a pike at the village entrance, but "word spread through the Sahara that the Mahdi – or at least one of his sons had escaped alive."^[31]

Alí Muḥammad Shírází (Báb)

Alí Muḥammad Shírází (1819–1850) claimed to be the Mahdi in 1844, taking the name the Báb and founded a religious movement known as Bábism. He was later executed by firing squad in the town of Tabriz. While Bábism was violently opposed and has very few members in modern times, it continued in the form of the Baháʼí Faith, whose followers consider the Báb as a central figure of their own.

Muḥammad Aḥmad

Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah (1844–1885) was a Sudanese Sufi sheikh of the Samaniyya order. Expelled for puritanical outbursts of anger, he founded his own order amidst Sudanese popular protest and millenarian unrest over Anglo-Egyptian rule.^[32] In June 1881 he declared himself Mahdi, announcing he had dreamt that he had been enthroned by Muhammad. He established control over the province of Kordofan and went on to lead a successful military campaign against the Turko-Egyptian government of Sudan, defeating the Anglo-Egyptian army and capturing the Sudanese capital, Khartoum in 1885. He predicted he would soon say prayers in Mecca, Medina, Cairo, and Jerusalem, but died a few months after his victory.^[32] The Mahdist State continued under his successor, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, until 1898, when it fell to the British Army following the Battle of Omdurman.

Mīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908) claimed to be both the Mahdi and the second coming of Jesus in the late 19th century in British India. He founded the Ahmadiyya religious movement in 1889, which, although considered by its followers to be Islam, is not recognized as such by the majority of mainstream Muslims. In 1880, Ahmad claimed to be the Mahdi in his book Braheen-e-Ahmadiyya, where he claimed to have received revelations. In 1974, the Pakistani parliament adopted a law declaring the Ahmadis to be Not-Muslims. Since Ghulam Ahmad's death, the Ahmadiyya community has been led by his successors.

Wallace Fard Muhammad

Wallace D. Fard Muhammad (1877?–1934?) founded the Nation of Islam, a religious movement, in Detroit, United States on 4 July 1930. The Nation of Islam teaches that W. Fard Muhammad was both the "Messiah" of Judaism and the Mahdi of Islam.

Muḥammad bin abd Allah al-Qahtani

Muhammad bin abd Allah al-Qahtani (1935–1980) was proclaimed Mahdi by his brother-in-law, Juhayman al-Otaibi, who led over 200 militants to seize the Grand Mosque in Mecca on 20 November 1979. The uprising was suppressed after a two-week siege in which at least 300 people were killed.

Riaz Aḥmed Gohar Shahi

Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi (born 1941) is the founder of the spiritual movements Messiah Foundation International (MFI) and Anjuman Serfaroshan-e-Islam.^[33][34][35] He is controversial for being declared the Mahdi, Messiah, and Kalki Avatar by the MFI.^[36] Shahi's supporters claim that his face became prominent on the Moon, Sun, nebula star and the Black Stone in Mecca. Shahi disappeared from public view in 2001. There have been claims that he died in that year or in 2003, but these are unconfirmed.

Ariffin Moḥamed

Ariffin Mohammed (born 1943), also known as "Ayah Pin", the leader and founder of the banned Sky Kingdom, he was born in 1943 in Beris, Kampung Besar Bachok, Kelantan. In 1975 a spiritual group was formed in Bagan Lebai Tahir, Butterworth, Penang. He claimed to be the incarnation of Jesus, as well as Muhammad, Shiva, and Buddha. Devotees of Sky Kingdom believe that one day, Ayah Pin will return as the Mahdi.

Mouhammadou Limamou Laye

Mouhammadou Limamou Laye (1843–1909) was the founder of the Layene Sufi order, based in Senegal.^[37] After the death of his mother he declared himself to be the Mahdi on May 24, 1884. This caused controversy with the French and many orthodox Muslims. His message emphasized cleanliness, prayer, alms, and social justice.

Dia Abdul Zahra Kadim

"In 2006, Dia Abdul Zahra Kadim, announced he was the awaited Mahdi and organized an armed group called “the Soldiers of Heaven". According to official reports, in late January 2007, Kadim marched towards the Shiite holy city of Najaf planned to execute the Shiite authorities and Grand Ayatollahs there and "take over their hawzas." Alerted to this menace, Iraqi forces surrounded Kadim and killed him,^[2] and "263 terrorists" in the 2007 Battle of Najaf.^[38] Unofficially, Iraqi and American forces are accused of wiping out the entire community of the Soldiers of Heaven, including women and children, at a "camp in Zarga, north of Najaf",^[38]

Other cases

According to seminary expert, Mehdi Ghafari, some dozens of Kurdish Sufis who claimed to be the Mahdi were imprisoned in Iran in 2012.^[39]