What is Mahdism and Where Does It Come From?

There have already been many messianic uprisings in the past, some of them failures, but others have been extremely successful. Although people often see no difference between these messianic insurrections and fundamentalists uprisings, they are qualitatively very different. Perhaps they might both be prompted by the same conditions, but these religion-driven revolutions are undoubtedly more serious in scope and effect. So far in today’s world, no one has yet proclaimed himself as the Mahdi although Muqtada al-Sadr in Iraq did refer to his army before as jaysh al-mahdi, “the army of the Mahdi” and said that his armed struggle against the Americans was in anticipation and in behalf of the coming of the Mahdi .

Also a number of Muslims court the possibility that Osama bin Laden may be the Mahdi. Nevertheless, Al-Sadr’s and Bin Laden’s missions would have had no bearing on the Muslims if it did not have legitimate Mahdist belief supporting them. Islam is actually the newest of the world religions, and has been established by Allah through Mohammed to correct the apparent impurities that crept into the formerly pristine Christian and Jewish traditions.

The al-Mahdi, “the rightly guided one” is the central messianic figure in Islam. Although he is not actually mentioned in the Quran, in a number of hadiths or “traditions”, he is referred to as coming at the end of historical time to bring in a worldwide Islamic state with the assistance of the prophet Jesus. Not only is the Mahdi the more important messianic figure in Muslim history and thought, but his is also the more easily appropriated role taken by Islamic revolutionaries referred to by Westerners as showing a messiah complex.

Mahdism then is the more appropriate term in an Islamic context to use for Muslim messianic movements. There have been numerous times throughout Islamic history when the mantle of the Mahdi has been used and in the Sunni world, there are eight such movements that particularly stand out, those of : Ibn Tumart, Ibn Abi Mahallah, and Muhammad Amzian in North Africa; Muhammad Jawnpuri and Ahmad Barelwi in India; Muhmmad Ahmad in Sudan; Mehmet in Turkey; and Muhammad al-Qahtani in Saudi Arabia.

These eight were chosen on the basis that

1. each openly claimed to be Mahdist;
2. did not transform into a new religious movement;
3. each was not Shi’i .

The last category is meant to rectify the apparent oversight of Sunni Mahdist tradition and the dismissal of Mahdism as a purely Shi’I phenomena Although Mahdism does have commonalities with Christian and other tradition’s apocalyptic, eschatological, utopian, and millennial movements, these terms are not enough to describe the kind of thing that Mahdism exactly is. Nonetheless, it can still trace its roots to Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian traditions.

Mahdism is never mentioned in the Quran and out of the six canonical anthologies of traditions extant today, only three—Abu Da’ud, Ibn Majah, and al-Tirmidhi—say something about the Mahdi. From these three hadiths, some important things about the Mahdi can be discerned including his supposed physical appearance, his name, his character, and his mission. According to tradition, he will come from Muhammed’s family, more specifically from the offspring of Ali and Fatimah. His name will be the same as the Prophet’s and his father’s name will also be that of Mohammad’s father .

As far as physical appearance is concerned, the Mahdi is said to have a distinct forehead (which might probably mean a receding hairline) and a noticeably curved nose. He will be also be tremendously altruistic and generous, and would have enough power as a leader to bring about socioeconomic justice. Moreover, it is said that before his rise to power, he will try to evade his responsibilities by escaping to Mecca from Medina where almost immediately an army from Syria will attack him and his supporters but their attackers will be overcome by the desert at God’s command.

After his triumph, the Mahdi will reallocate wealth and realize the Sunnah. However, the Mahdi according to Islamic traditions will not come alone but will be accompanied by other important eschatological figures. Apart from the Mahdi, there are five other personages that are deemed essential in the Muslim Eschatological context. These include

1. Jesus;
2. al-Dajjal, “the Deceiver” ;
3. al-Dabbah, “the Beast”;
4. the collective entity Yajuj wa-Majuj, “Gog and Magog”;
5. al-Sufyani .

In addition to the appearance of these six key figures, a number of events will also mark the beginning of the end of human history including the rising of the sun in the West instead of the East; a wind killing all believing Muslims; the erasing of all the texts from the Quran; a great smog coming from Yemen or South Arabia that will cover the entire world; and at least three great earthquakes. Not all Muslims however believe in the Mahdi. Some contend that the Mahdi’s absence not only in the Quran but also in the al-Bukhari and Muslim, the two foremost authorities on Islamic traditions, make his credibility somewhat null.

This however remains the minority view in both pre-modern and modern Islam. One fact stands out nonetheless and that is that all accounts about the future Mahdi are quite vague and open to various interpretations. This has two major implications:

1. different and perhaps even conflicting interpretations of the world situation before the end of the world is possible;
2. any aspiring Mahdi can attempt to appropriate these traditions to his life or vice versa.

Mahdist Movements throughout History

The last fourteen or so centuries of Islamic history have seen the rise of numerous uprisings led by self-proclaimed mahdis who wish to topple a supposedly illegitimate and oppressive government in order to establish a new, more Islamic and egalitarian Mahdist rule. Although most mahdist revolutions ended up in the death of the leader, there are some that have been successful enough to bring their leader into power at least for some time. Most Mahdist revolutions are Sunni, although there have been some that are Shi’i.

The three most prominent of these revolutions were the Fatimids , the Buwayhids , and the Safavids . The Fatimid revolutions arguably can be cited as the most successful Mahdist movement in history and although the book focuses on Sunni Mahdism, the Fatimids are still worth study in the sense that they became a great influence on latter Mahdist—especially North African—movements. The first Sunni movement, and one of the most successful, was founded by Abu Allah Muhammed and was known as the Almohads .

A muwahhid was someone who believed in Ibn Tumart’s doctrine of “divine unity” or tawhid, a concept used to counter the rule of the Murabits who was the ruling regime in Morocco and Spain during the time and was the subject of Ibn Tumart’s ire because of their supposedly fundamentalist and immoral practices and their lack of moral right to rule. Ibn Tumart attacked the Murabit ruling class’s alleged avarice and hypocrisy and ridiculed them as “shepherds turned kings” who put heavy taxes on the people and ignored Allah’s true commandments.

After successful uprisings, The Almohads ended up ruling a sizable territory which spanned Spain and North Africa. Although their rule eventually ended in 1269, theirs was the first successful Sunni Mahdism. From this example, it can be seen that Mahdism can be a powerful adversarial tool, and can be used to weaponize religious discontent . The next major Sunni Mahdist movement occurred in India in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries CE and was founded by the self-declared Mahdi, Sayyid Muhammad Jawnpuri of Gujarat, western India.

In contrast to Ibn Tumart’s Mahdism, Jawnpuri’s Mahdism was strongly oriented towards social justice, not only stricter implementation of Islamic practices. His was also a sort of ecumenical Mahdism as he claimed descent from Musa al-Kazim, the seventh imam in the Twelver Shi’ism, which means he could also appeal to Shi’is in India. The third major Sunni Mahdist movement was in Africa and was led by Ibn Abu Mahallah, and was thought might be a conscious emulation of Ibn Tumart’s movement.

This is often also marked as the first Mahdism that grew out in the context of European influence and incursion and was geared against the ruling Sa’idyans of Morocco. The uprising seems to be in response to one of the land-for-support deals with the Europeans. His Mahdism can actually be described as largely fuelled by instinctive Islamic rage against a clearly Islamic ruling class that proved powerless over Christian influences. Although his rule was short, it again validated that Mahdism has great potential to displace an existing Islamic regime, even if only temporarily .

Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi led the next most prominent Mahdist movements. The movement erupted in northwestern India in the early nineteenth century. Barelwi’s aim was to renew Islam by purifying it of unacceptable practices and purging it of un-Islamic rulers, whether it be British or Sikh . During a jihad against the Sikhs in 1831, Barelwi went missing in action, and his body was never found. His followers subsequently used this apparent defeat to demonstrate that he was the Mahdi and that his absence was simply a case of occultation and that he will eventually return.

Although this movement was never moved past a stage 2 of the Mahdist development, it is still another example of Mahdism’s ability to inspire jihad and rebellion, and to a certain extent, reform . A number of near-Mahdist movements emerged in Algeria in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. These were incited mostly by the perceived French-Muslim conspiracy of oppression. None came close to the third stage of Mahdist development.