As aggression has emerged in the Near East, starting with the conquest of Mecca in 630 A.D., and extending through the attacks on neighboring parts of Arabia in the following years, Mohammad himself was present as the founder of Islam, and his physical existence served a mythological function to explain the military campaigns.
In the years following Muhammad's death in 632 A.D., a growing mythology was necessary to motivate continued military conquests. This extended west across North Africa, north into Syria, east into Babylon and Persia, and finally into Europe with the invasion of Spain in 711 A.D., allowing Islam to form a vast caliphate (empire). A robust mythology was needed to fuel such an expansive military domination.
One part of this mythology was the notion of a Mahdi - or more precisely, 'the' Mahdi - an anticipated messianic figure who would lead Islam on a final campaign of attack and pillage, destroying all non-Muslim cultures, killing all 'infidels' or nonbelievers, and establishing a final and lasting caliphate.
Like most religions, Islam contains within itself a number of subdivisions: Sunni, Shia, Sufi, Wahabi, etc. Almost all varieties of Islam assert some belief in the Mahdi. Note also that technical terms within Islam, originating as they do in the Arabic language, are subject to varying spelling in English as a result of the process of transliteration: Muhammad or Mohammed, Shia or Shi'ah, etc. Scholar Timothy Furnish writes:
Although most Muslims, not just Shi'i but Sunni as well, have believed in the Mahdi as an article of Islamic doctrine, not all have. For a short time in the early Islamic movement, many believed that Jesus had been the one and only Mahdi. But perhaps under the influence of the Zoroastrian dual messianic deliverers and out of a desire to differentiate the new religion of Islam from Christianity, the major who accepted the problematic traditions about the Mahdi came to see him as a totally separate figure.
The Mahdi is one of several mythological characters who fit into an Islamic eschatological scheme - an "end times" scenario. Islam invites both comparison and contrast with other eschatological frameworks, e.g., with the Christian scenarios about the end of the world. Both Islam and Christianity offer a rich narrative about the end of time, with a number of specific individuals, some good, some evil. Islam's narrative, however, centers on the military and political establishment of a physical caliphate, while Christianity narrative focuses on the regeneration of the universe into a "new heaven and a new earth." Islam's eschatological focus is on the tangible foundation of a social order - an imposed utopia - which prompted the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer to call Islam an "optimistic" religion. Christianity's eschatological focus emphasizes the spiritual revitalization of creation - which Schopenhauer called "pessimism," inasmuch as it acknowledges the imperfect nature of the present universe.
In addition to the Mahdi, another character in Islamic eschatological narratives is known as the Twelfth Imam. In fact, in some versions of Islam, the Mahdi is the Twelfth Imam. The ambiguities of Islamic eschatology, and the many variations of it, present an opportunity for scholars to generate self-serving interpretations. Timothy Furnish continues:
The accounts of the future Mahdi - and, indeed, of most of the eschatological actors in Islam - are rather vague and open-ended. This fact has two ramifications: (1) many disparate interpretations of the world geopolitical, socioeconomic, religious, and military situation prior to the beginning of the end of history are possible; and (2) more important, any aspiring Mahdi can attempt to tailor these traditions into Mahdist cloak for himself, or, alternatively, alter his life and career so as to align with the traditions. Many have indeed tried to do so. And some would-be Mahdis have succeeded, at least for a season.
Among the many variations of Islamic eschatology - Timothy Furnish counts over 20 versions among the Shia alone - there are some common threads. One is the "hidden Imam" who will emerge to lead Islam on a final successful military conquest. In some versions, this Imam is the twelfth, in others he's the third or fifth, etc., and in some versions he's the Mahdi, and in other versions he's not. The general flavor of the end times scenario remains the same.
Who is this Twelfth Imam? Historically, there was a twelfth imam, a successor in the line Muhammad, who inherited leadership of Islam. His somewhat mysterious disappearance gives fuel to speculation that he hid or was hidden, waiting to reemerge at the proper time and lead the final military rampage of Islam through the world. Scholar Joel Rosenberg writes that this Twelfth Imam
was not a mythical character or fictional construct. He was a real, flesh-and-blood person who had lived in the ninth century and would someday reemerge to change the course of history. Born in Samarra, Iraq, in or around the year 868, his name was Muhammad Ibn Hasan Ibn Ali. Like the eleven Shia Muslim leaders who went before him, Muhammad was a direct descendant of the founder of Islam and was thought to have been divinely chosen to be the spiritual guide and ultimate human authority of the Muslim people.
While the notion of some type of Mahdi is common to all, or most, versions of Islam, the identification of the Mahdi with the Twelfth Imam tends more to be associated with Shia than with other types of Islam.
But before he reached an age of maturity when he could teach and counsel of the Muslim world as was believed to be his destiny, the Twelfth Imam had vanished from human society. Some said he was four years old. Others said five or six. Some believed he fell into a well in Samarra, though his body was never recovered. Others believed his mother placed him in the well to prevent the evil rulers of the time from finding him, capturing him, and killing him - and that little Muhammad subsequently became supernaturally invisible. That's why some called him the "Hidden Imam," believing that Ali was not dead but simply hidden from the sight of mankind until the end of days, when Allah would once again reveal him.
Islamic eschatology plays into the hands of military aggression and terrorism. Whether at the invasion of Spain in 711 A.D. (prior to the birth of the Twelfth Imam, when the concept of the Mahdi was less distinct but still powerful within Islam), or at the final attack on Constantinople in 1453 A.D., or at New York's World Trade Center in 2001, rhetoric concerning the Mahdi has been a standard motivational tool for terrorism. Al Qaeda and its founder, Osama bin Laden, regularly used vocabulary and verbal imagery designed to evoke the Mahdi. More explicitly, al Qaeda members and a large segment of the Muslims in the Arab world began to use Mahdi vocabulary in relation to Osama bin Laden in the years after the 2001 terrorist attack on New York.
To be sure, a large portion of the Muslim world did not connect Osama bin Laden with Mahdi expectations. Those who did make that connection are not deterred by his death, because his demise plays into the notion of the "hidden imam" who miraculously reappears.
In either case, the concepts of the Mahdi and of the Twelfth Imam are important for understanding the motivations behind terrorism and military aggression, both in past centuries and in the future.
