HASAN AL-’ASKARI, THE ELEVENTH IMAM

The Eleventh Imam was ‘Abu Muhammad Hasan ibn ‘Ali, known as al-’Askari on account of his almost life-long detention in Samarra. He was born in 232/846 (or 230/844 or 231/845) in Medina and was therefore only two years of age when his father was summoned to Samarra. His mother was a slave who is named as Hadith.

Hasan al-’Askari was twenty-two years old when his father gave him a slave-girl who is usually called Narjis or Saqil and who is named as the mother of Muhammad, the Twelfth Imam.

The period of Hasan’s Imamate was brief, only six years. During this time he was under intense pressure from the ‘Abbasids and access to him for his followers was restricted. He therefore tended to use agents to communicate with the Shi’is who followed him.

Hasan al-’Askari died on either 1 or 8 Rabi’ al-Awwal 260 (25 December 873 or 1 January 874). The Shi’i histories maintain that he was poisoned by the Caliph Mu’tamid.

MUHAMMAD AL-MAHDI, THE TWELFTH IMAM

Abu’l-Qasim Muhammad ibn Hasan, known as al-Mahdi (the guided), al-Muntazar (the awaited), al-Hujja (the proof), al-Qa’im (the one who will arise). Baqiyatu’llah (the remnant of God), is identified as the Twelfth Imam. After the death of Hasan al-’Askari there was a great deal of confusion among the Shi’a, with some saying that al-’Askari had no son and others asserting that he had. Those who were to go on to become the main body of the Twelver Shi’a believed that Hasan’s son Muhammad had gone into occultation.

Bibliography:
See M. Momen, An Introduction to Shii Islam (1985).