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The Agency of ʿUthmān b. Saʿīd al-ʿAmrī: A Critical Reassessment of Edmund Hayes’s View in Agents of the Hidden Imam
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Abstract: (69 Views) |
| The official Imami account of the institution of the agents (al-sufarāʾ), first subjected to historical criticism in Verena Klemm’s article, has recently been revisited—albeit through a different but broadly convergent formulation—in Edmund Hayes’s Agents of the Hidden Imam. Emphasizing that, apart from reports deriving from Hibat Allāh al-Kātib, no explicit and early evidence is available for the agency of ʿUthmān b. Saʿīd after the death of Imam al-Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī, Hayes questions both the very agency of ʿUthmān and his precedence over his son, Muḥammad b. ʿUthmān. He further reinforces this doubt by relying on Hibat Allāh al-Kātib’s report concerning the duration of Muḥammad b. ʿUthmān’s activity. A closer examination of these two pieces of evidence, however, reveals significant shortcomings in Hayes’s analysis. The report concerning the duration of Muḥammad b. ʿUthmān’s activity does not explicitly establish that his independent agency began before that of ʿUthmān b. Saʿīd. Moreover, reports independent of Hibat Allāh al-Kātib portray ʿUthmān b. Saʿīd as the Imam’s successor, a mediator of his statements and commands, and an individual whose authority was binding; they also explicitly attest to Muḥammad b. ʿUthmān’s succession after him. More importantly, in the reports confirming the authority of the younger al-ʿAmrī, the agency of the father is treated as an established premise, while the son’s agency is understood as the continuation of, and succession to, his father’s office. Consequently, Hayes’s evidence does not undermine ʿUthmān b. Saʿīd’s precedence over Muḥammad b. ʿUthmān. Rather, the cumulative evidence supports the continuity of ʿUthmān b. Saʿīd’s position at the beginning of the Minor Occultation and the subsequent succession of Muḥammad b. ʿUthmān. |
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| Keywords: ʿUthmān b. Saʿīd al-ʿAmrī, institution of agency, Four Agents, Minor Occultation, Edmund Hayes, Agents of the Hidden Imam. |
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Full-Text [PDF 935 kb]
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Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
Special
Received: 2026/09/21 | Accepted: 2026/10/2 | Published: 2026/10/2
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