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Faris ibn Hatim ibn Mahawayh al-Qazvini

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Faris ibn Hatim ibn Mahawayh al-Qazvini was initially one of the representative of Ali al-Hadi.[1] These representatives were responsible for the financial and religious affairs of the Imamite Shias[2] especially for the collection of religious taxes like Khums[3] and following the same tenet of political quietism of the Shia Imams, they took on the role of directing and organising the Shia community.[4] Faris's intermediary with the Imamites living in the Jibal, encompassed the central and western parts of modern-day Iran.[a][1][8]

Faris was involved in a dispute with Ali ibn Ja'far around 862 and was consequently banned by al-Hadi from receiving alms on his behalf. He continued to do so, however, without forwarding them to al-Hadi,[9] who excommunicated Faris in 864 for embezzling religious dues.[9][10][11] Later when Faris continued to openly incite against al-Hadi, the latter called for his death,[9][10] and he was indeed assassinated during the imamate of Hasan al-Askari.[10][12]

Dispute with al-Hadi

In Samarra, Faris was a senior representative of Ali al-Hadi, the ninth Imam in Twelver Shia. There he was involved in a conflict with another representative by the name of Ali ibn Ja'far al-Hamani. This difference eventually resulted in acrimonious arguments and ambivalence on both sides, which in turn caused discomfort in the Shia community and the certain people's refusal to fulfill their financial responsibilities to al-Hadi. Moreover, al-Hadi's local representatives, who had previously sent their collections to al-Hadi through these two helpers, were unsure of who to believe anymore. Al-Hadi against Faris sided with Ali bin Ja'far and ordered his representatives not to use the former for their business with al-Hadi. At the same time, he requested that his representatives refrain from talking about his choice and refrain from provoking Faris. According to Kashshi, al-Hadi did this because Faris was an effective person and served as the primary middleman between al-Hadi and the Shias of Jibal, who usually sent their religious obligations to al-Hadi through him.[1] Despite al-Hadi's orders to the contrary, Faris received funds from that region and did not deliver them to his putative master. At this point, al-Hadi decided to make the issue public and requested that his representatives inform the Shia community that Faris is no longer related to him and funds intended for the Imam should not be handed to him. Then in two letters, one dated Tuesday 9 Rabi al-Awwal 250/20 April 864, he officially anathematized Faris.[13][8] After that, Faris started an open campaign against al-Hadi. The sources do not provide details about his activities except that he allegedly turned into a significant troublemaker who called people to bid'a in an effort to attract them to his side. In a letter he sent to some of his supporters in Samarra, al-Hadi accused Faris of "a wicked utterance". The deterioration of the situation is evident in al-Hadi's next action, the extraordinary, though unprecedented, call by al-Hadi to assassinate his rebel agent. One of al-Hadi's assistants executed the order.[14]

His followers

Faris was very attached to Muhammad, the son of Ali al-Hadi, who died a year or two after Faris was assassinated, probably in the hope that he would be the next imam's top operative. After Ali al-Hadi passed away, the devotees of Faris remained faithful to Muhammad, and although he had died before his father, they he was regarded as the legitimate Imam by them. Ali al-Hadi, who had designated Hasan as his successor, as well as Hasan himself, who, in contrast to Ali al-Hadi's third son, Ja'far, backed his father's activities against Faris, were the targets of this act of rebellion. In this way, the followers of Faris formed their splinter group among the Imamia community against Hasan’s followers and believed that Ja'far, Muhammad's younger brother, was chosen by Muhammad to succeed him, and that Ja'far was the true Imam after Ali al-Hadi. There were allegations that Muhammad had obtained the Imamate's treasures from his father as his appointed successor and gave it to his personal assistant Nafis, who then delivered it to Ja'far. Therefore, during the reign of his brother Hasan al-Askari, Ja'far had gathered a few followers, mostly from among the adherents of Faris.[15][8]

Notes

  1. ^ Al-Hadi's representatives appear to have been split up into four distinct regions: the first one included Baghdad, Mada'in, the Sawad, and Kufa; the second, Basra and Ahwaz; the third, Qom and Hamadan; and the fourth, the Hejaz, Yemen, and Egypt.[5][6][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c Modarressi 1993, p. 71.
  2. ^ Baghestani 2014.
  3. ^ Wardrop 1988, p. 221.
  4. ^ Sachedina 1981, p. 28.
  5. ^ Hussain 1986, pp. 81–2.
  6. ^ Hussain 1986, p. 50.
  7. ^ Wardrop 1988, pp. 225–6.
  8. ^ a b c Arjomand 1996.
  9. ^ a b c Modarressi 1993, pp. 71–2.
  10. ^ a b c Wardrop 1988, p. 225.
  11. ^ al-Qurashi 2012, p. 304.
  12. ^ Modarressi 1993, p. 73.
  13. ^ Modarressi 1993, pp. 71–72.
  14. ^ Modarressi 1993, p. 72.
  15. ^ Modarressi 1993, pp. 73–4.

Sources

  • Modarressi, Hossein (1993). Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative Period of Shi'ite Islam: Abu Ja'Far Ibn Qiba Al-Razi and His Contribution to Imamite Shi'Ite Thought. Darwin Press. ISBN 0878500952.
  • al-Qurashi, Baqir Shareef (2012). The Life of Imam ‘Ali al-Hadi, Study and Analysis. p. 304.
  • Wardrop, S. F. (1988). Lives of the Imams, Muhammad al-Jawad and 'Ali al-Hadi and the Development of the Shi'ite Organisation (PhD thesis). University of Edinburgh.
  • Baghestani, Esmail (2014). "Jawad, Imam". Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam (in Persian). Vol. 11. Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation. ISBN 978-9644470127.
  • Sachedina, Abdulaziz Abdulhussein (1981). Islamic Messianism: The Idea of Mahdī in Twelver Shīʻism. State University of New York Press. ISBN 9780873954426.
  • Hussain, Jassim M. (1986). Occultation of the Twelfth Imam: A Historical Background (PDF). Routledge Kegan & Paul. ISBN 9780710301581.
  • Arjomand, Said Amir (1996). "The Crisis of the Imamate and the Institution of Occultation in Twelver Shiism: A Sociohistorical Perspective". Jstor. 28 (4): 491–515.
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