Hussein ibn Ahmad

Hussein ibn Ahmad ( Arabic الحسين بن أحمد, DMG al-Ḥusain ibn Aḥmad ; † 882/883) was the father of the first caliph of the Fatimids , al-Mahdi († March 4, 934), and according to the historiographical tradition of the Ismaili Shia, is their tenth imam .

Little is known about Hussein. He was the elder son of Ahmad and grandson of Abdallah al-Akbar , the founder of the Ismaili mission ( daʿwa ) . He had apparently lived in the Persian Askar Mukram , the home of his grandfather, since his son Said (alias "Abdallah") was born here on July 31, 874. When he was eight years old, Hussein died.

Like all family members, Hussein lived in secrecy ( ġaiba ) for reasons of caution ( taqīya ) under various aliases in order to avoid persecution by the ruling Abbasid caliphs . He does not seem to have played any significant role in the Ismaili mission, possibly because he died before his father. The mission, organized from Salamiyya in Syria , was actually taken over by his brother Abu Ali Muhammad (alias "Abu sch-Schalaghlagh"; † approx. 899) . Who can bring Hussein's death the young nephew Said to Al-Salamiyah to him as the rightly-guided prostate (al-Imam al-Mahdi) build of the faithful, which it should be determined one day out of concealment step out to the Caliphate of the descendants of Ali again erect.

literature

• Farhad Daftary , The Ismāʿīlīs: Their History and Doctrines. Cambridge University Press 1990.
• Heinz Halm : The Empire of the Mahdi. The rise of the Fatimids (875–973). Beck, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-406-35497-1 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Ahmad ibn Abdallah	10. Imam of the Ismailis	Abdallah ibn Hussein al-Mahdi