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Document Details :

Title: Some Notes on the History of the Twelvers
Author(s): KNAPPERT, J.
Journal: Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica
Volume: 25    Date: 1994   
Pages: 237-256
DOI: 10.2143/OLP.25.0.583472

Abstract :
notThe “Twelvers”, called in Arabic and Persian the Ithnā'ashariyya (an adjective which implies umma ‘community, congregation’), are so called because they follow the twelfth imam, Muhammad ibn Ḥasan, whose epithet ‘al-Mahdi’ indicates that his followers expect him to return incarnate to earth at the end of times to defeat the enemies of God, destroy paganism and establish God's kingdom.

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