Download or read book Agents of the Hidden Imam written by Edmund Philip Hayes and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Twelvers are currently the most populous Shiʻi denomination and a hugely influential force within the diverse and complicated history of Islam, and yet relatively few careful critical studies have been made into the complex and contradictory evidence for this foundational moment of Twelver Shiʻism. Central to this story are the agents of the hidden Imam who created the conditions of possibility for the establishment and canonization of this defining doctrine of Twelver Shi'ism: the Occultation ghayba of the twelfth Imam. I aim to show how the direct leadership of the Imams collapsed, how it was replaced by the authority of agents of non-Imamic lineage,9 and why the leadership of the agents collapsed in turn, only to be canonized as a key part of Twelver doctrine"--