Died 818 AD, Bastam, Iran | Parents Ja'far al-Sadiq | |
Grandparents Muhammad al-Baqir, Umm Farwah bint Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Great-grandparents Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin, Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr, Fatimah bint Hasan Similar Isma'il ibn Jafar, Ali al‑Uraidhi ibn Ja'far, Zayd ibn Ali, Shahrbanu, Abu Hamza al‑Thumali | ||
Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq, surnamed al-Dibaj ("the handsome"), the younger full brother of Musa al-Kadhim, and son of Ja'far al-Sadiq appeared in Mecca in the year 200 A.H. / 815 C.E. claiming that he was the Awaited Mahdi. He believed in a Zaydi Shia type of Imamate and declared himself as the Caliph of the Muslims and took the oath of allegiance from them and was called the Leader of the faithful. He was recognized as the Imam by a small group of followers. His followers became denominated as the Shumaytiyya (Sumaytiyya) after their leader Yahya ibn Abi’l-Shumayt (al-Sumayt). However, his revolt against the Caliph al-Ma'mun proved unsuccessful in the very same year it started (i.e. 815 C.E.). He ended his revolt by abdicating and publicly confessing his error and was then banished from the Hejaz and the Tihamah.
Contents
Al-Dibaj died in 203 A.H. / 818 C.E., and was buried in Bastam, Iran.
Descendants
Some descendants of Muhammad ibn Jafar al-Sadiq settled in Iran, and moved to India along with the armies of Mahmud of Ghazni and later with the Mughal emperor Hamayoun.
Ismail & Jafar
They were present at the cemetery, attending to the funeral and burial ceremonies of their father Muhammad bin Ja'far. The Abbasid capliph Al-Ma'mun himself was present until the burial was over and said the final prayer on the bier.
Yahyah
According to Al-Ma'mun, Yahyah was somewhere in Egypt at the time of his father's death. It is possible he was opposed to the Abbasid caliphate.
Ali
Known as Al-Harisi. He had settled permanently in Shiraz since the exile of his father's family from Medina. Seven generations of his descendants lived and multiplied in Shiraz and some are known to have accompanied armies of Mahmud of Ghazni to India.
Al-Qasim
Al-Dibaj had a son named al-Qasim, who in turn had three children: Umm Kulthum (d.868), Abdallah (d.875) and Yahya (d.877). Al-Qasim and his family went to live in Egypt after the failure of Al-Dibaj’s revolt and were among the first Alid families to resettle in Egypt.
Legacy
Al-Dibaj's followers, the Shumaytiyya or Sumaytiyya, believed that the Imamate would remain with his family and that the Mahdi would come from among his family.