Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD

Lineage and Early Life

Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn Hasan al-ʿAskari – revered by Twelver Shiʿa Muslims as Imam al-Mahdi – was born in mid-9th century CE in the garrison town of Samarra (in modern-day Iraq) al-islam.org. Sources in the Twelver tradition commonly cite his birth on 15 Shaʿbān 255 AH (869 CE), during the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Muʿtamid al-islam.org. His father was Imam Ḥasan al-ʿAskari, the eleventh Shia Imam, and his mother was Narjis (also called Narjis Khātūn), whom later accounts describe as a noble-born woman of Byzantine origin al-islam.org. Through his father’s lineage, Muhammad ibn Hasan is a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad – his ancestry traces back via the line of Shia Imams to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Fāṭima, the Prophet’s daughter al-islam.org. This lineage places him as the twelfth and final Imam in the Ithnā ʿAsharī (Twelver) Shia succession, which is significant for Twelver theology and identity.

From the start, the birth and early life of Muhammad al-Mahdi were shrouded in secrecy due to political pressures. According to Shia historical sources, Imam Ḥasan al-ʿAskari kept his son’s birth hidden from the public, revealing the child only to a close circle of family and trusted followers ijtihadnet.com ijtihadnet.com. This caution was deemed necessary because the Abbasid authorities were alert to Shia messianic expectations: widespread rumors held that Imam al-ʿAskari would have a son who could be the promised Mahdi, a savior figure en.wikipedia.org ijtihadnet.com. Imam al-ʿAskari, who himself lived under house arrest in Samarra, feared for his son’s life and future. Thus, in Shia narratives, the infant Muhammad al-Mahdi’s upbringing took place under conditions of concealment; even many among the Imam’s own Shiʿa community were not aware of the child’s existence ijtihadnet.com. These measures set the stage for the Imam’s later occultation, as the need to protect the awaited Imam from Abbasid persecution was paramount from the very beginning ijtihadnet.com.

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