Emerging Patterns of Authority in Early Shiʿism: al-Mukhtār and the Aesthetics of Persuasion

Abstract

In this study the author examines some aspects of authority in the movement of the Shiʿite leader al-Mukhtār (d. 67/687). The notion of religious aesthetics as developed by Birgit Meyer is used as an analytical tool. It is argued that al-Mukhtār accomplished his political endeavour partly by introducing and controlling three “aesthetic forms” which functioned as “media” between the people and the deceased ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib: his claim to act on behalf of ʿAlī’s son Ibn al-Ḥanafiyya, whom he called al-mahdī, “the rightly guided”; his call to revenge for the killing of ʿAlī’s son Ḥusayn; and his exhibiting of a chair that he claimed had belonged to ʿAlī. The accounts of these three media, the author furthermore argues, have an historical foundation. Finally he holds that through these media al-Mukhtār was able to channel the needs and aspirations of many of the Shiites of Kufa into political action.

The Advent of Imam Mahdi As the Avenger of Imam Hussein

“…The results of a study showed that Yazid killed Imam Hussein with his intentions [71]. The movement of the Shiʿite leader al-Mukhtār and his call for revenge for the killing of ʿAlī's son Ḥusayn was one of the significant phenomena in Islam [65].…”