Agents of the Hidden Imam

In 874 CE, the eleventh Imam died, and the Imami community splintered. The institutions of the Imamate were maintained by the dead Imam''s agents, who asserted they were in contact with a hidden twelfth Imam. This was the beginning of ''Twelver'' Shiʿism. Edmund Hayes provides an innovative approach to exploring early Shiʿism, moving beyond doctrinal history to provide an analysis of the socio-pol...