An early Shi'ite leader's means to gain authority

What is it about?

In 686, al-Mukhtar, the leader of a Shi'ite insurrection against the ruling Umayyad dynasty, succeeded in gaining political power in Kufa. This article studies his use of three means to gain authority. These three phenomena functioned as mediators between Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, and the faithful Shi'ites. Ali had been killed 25 years earlier, but many Shi'ites thought he was alive in a spiritual sense, and that he would one day return from the dead as a kind of Messiah. The three means of mediation between Ali and the people that al-Mukhtar presented were 1) his claim to have been sent by Ibn al-Hanafiyya, a son of Ali whom he called "al-Mahdi" (the divinely guided one); 2) his accomplishment of revenge against another son of Ali, al-Husayn, who had been killed by the Umayyads in a battle at Karbala a few years previously; and 3) he presented a chair that he claimed had belonged to and used by Ali, a chair that some of the Shi'ites came to revere almost as the Israelites' Arch of the Covenant. Al-Mukhtar's use of these mediators are studied through the theory of religious aesthetics, developed by Birgit Meyer.

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Why is it important?

This study looks at early Shi'ism from a perspective that is new. It has not been common to apply modern anthropological theory to ancient Islamic history. In order to do so, I first have had to argue that the three phenomena that functioned as mediators actually existed in history, and were not just literary or historiographical constructs. Th study thus shows that it is possible, and rewarding, to try to use anthropological and sociological theory on ancient Arab history.