Mūsā al-Kāzim

Tomb mausoleum of Mūsā al-Kāzim in al-Kazimiyya , photograph by Sven Hedin 1918.

Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar al-Kāzim ( Arabic موسى بن جعفر الكاظم, DMG Mūsā ibn Ǧaʿfar al-Kāẓim ; * November 8, 745 in al-Abwā 'between Mecca and Medina; † September 1, 799 in Baghdad ) was a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed and the seventh Imam of the Imamites . The time of his imamate was 35 years.

Life

Mūsā al-Kāzim was born during the power struggles between the Umayyads and Abbasids . His mother's name was Hamīda and was a Berber slave. He was only four years old when Abu l-Abbas as-Saffah was the first Abbasid caliph to ascend the throne. After the assassination of his father Jafar al-Sādiq under the rule of the caliph al-Mansur , the imamate first passed to ʿAbdallāh, the eldest son of Jafar. By this time Mūsā had already built up his own circle of followers among his father's loyal followers, but did not question his brother's imamate. When ʿAbdallāh died after only 60 days without a son, his followers Mūsā also joined them. While some believed that Abdallāh could not have been the true imam in view of his early death, others believed that Abdallāh duly transferred the imamate to his brother before his death. This second group, who included Hasan's older brother ʿAbdallāh al-Aftah in the chain of imams, were called Futhīya or Fathīya. However, other Shiites, the so-called Ismailis , saw his brother Ismail ibn Jafar as the rightful successor and seventh imam, which resulted in a split in the group.

The caliph Hārūn ar-Raschīd had Mūsā brought from Medina to Baghdad in 795/6, where he lived in the house of as-Sindī ibn Shāhik under conditions similar to detention until his death. Some of his followers had the expectation that as a Qa'im he would lead a rebellion. When he died in 799, he left a total of 18 sons and 15 daughters, all of whom he fathered with female slaves.

Speculation after his death

The death of Mūsā al-Kāzim, which none of his followers had attended, plunged the Imamite community into another succession crisis. A large number of his followers and representatives in the various regions were of the opinion that he had not died, but had only hid himself in order to soon return to the world as a Qa'im. A client of the Banū Asad named Muhammad ibn Baschīr came forward claiming to be Mūsā's representative and authorized representative. The Imamite doxographer al-Qummī, who wrote his "Book of Teachings and Sects" ( Kitāb al-Maqālāt wa-l-firaq ) before 905 , reports in it that Muhammad ibn Bashīr had sleight of hand and trickery and claimed that Mūsā al-Kāzim be god. At first he was visible among people, but then he withdrew from view of people, although he was still among them.

Some of Mūsā's followers recognized his son ʿAlī ar-Ridā as his successor after his death . However, the followers of Muhammad ibn Bashīr denied his imamate and called his claim to it a lie. Rather, they meant that during his absence, Mūsā had appointed Muhammad ibn Bashīr as his deputy and had given him full powers that he was the true imam after him. Imamite writers have tried to find an economic explanation for this division in their community. They said that at the time of Mūsā al-Kāzim's death, his representatives in the various cities had accumulated large amounts of money that they could not pass on to their imam because of the imam's imprisonment. In order to keep these amounts to themselves, they denied his death and claimed that he would return at some point.

In the course of time, however, most imamites accepted ʿAlī ar-Ridā as the true imam. They were called Qa Qīya by the other Shiites , supposedly because they assumed with certainty ( qaṭʿan ) that Mūsā al-Kāzim had died.

His grave

Mūsā al-Kāzim is buried with his grandson, who later became Imam Muhammad at-Taqi , in al-Kazimiyya , a suburb named after him in northeast Baghdad .

literature

Arabic sources

• Saʿd ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Ashʿarī al-Qummī: Kitāb al-Maqālāt wa-l-firaq. Ed. Muḥammad Ǧawād Maškūr. Maṭbaʿat-i Ḥaidarī, Tehran, 1963. pp. 91–95.

Secondary literature

• Heinz Halm: The Islamic Gnosis. The extreme Schia and the Alawites. Artemis, Zurich / Munich, 1982. pp. 233-239.
• E. Kohlberg: "Mūsā al-Kāẓim" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. VII, pp. 645b-648b.
• Hossein Modarressi: Crisis and Consolidation in the formative period of Shiʿite Islam. Abū Jaʿfar ibn Qiba al-Rāzī and his contribution to Imāmite Shīʿite thought. Darwin Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1993. pp. 59-62.

supporting documents

1. ↑ See Kohlberg: "Mūsā al-Kāẓim", p. 645b.
2. ↑ See Modarressi: Crisis and Consolidation . 1993, p. 59.
3. ↑ See Modarressi: Crisis and Consolidation . 1993, p. 60.
4. ↑ Cf. al-Qummī: Kitāb al-Maqālāt wa-l-firaq. 1963, p. 93.
5. ↑ Cf. al-Qummī: Kitāb al-Maqālāt wa-l-firaq. 1963, p. 95.
6. ↑ See Modarressi: Crisis and Consolidation . 1993, p. 60.
7. ↑ See Halm: The Islamic Gnosis. 1982, p. 234.
8. ↑ See Halm: The Islamic Gnosis. 1982, p. 236.
9. ↑ See Halm: The Islamic Gnosis. 1982, p. 236.
10. ↑ Cf. al-Qummī: Kitāb al-Maqālāt wa-l-firaq. 1963. p. 91.
11. ↑ See Modarressi: Crisis and Consolidation . 1993, p. 62.
12. ↑ See Modarressi: Crisis and Consolidation . 1993, p. 62.