Ali al-Rida: Difference between revisions

His father, Imam [[Musa al-Kazem]], who died in prison in Baghdad in Rajab, 183/September, 799, made him his legatee, and ʿAli inherited his estate of Sorayyaʾ near Medina to the exclusion of his many brothers. But the death of Imam Musa was denied by several of his wakils; they withheld the money collected from the [https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/khums-COM_1417 Khoms] and vows of Imam Musa’s followers and refused to recognize ʿAli as [[Imam]], promising the return of his father as the Mahdi. This led to a large-scale defection from the ranks of his father’s followers, especially in [[Kufa]] and Baghdad; ʿAli was later accused by them of diverging from the teaching of his ancestors in some points. Of his brothers, none seems to have claimed the imamate for himself, though some apparently furthered the belief in the survival of their father. According to Waqedi, he transmitted Hadith from his father and his uncles and gave fatwas in the mosque of Medina. Though Waqedi describes him as a reliable transmitter (theqa), he was evidently shunned by Sunni traditionists in Medina, and his transmitters were strictly Shiʿite. There is no good evidence that he ever left Medina for an extended trip before his departure for Khorasan, though a Shiʿite report describes a miraculous visit by him to the communities of his followers in Basra and Kufa after the death of his father. Several of his brothers and his uncle Muhammad b. Jaʿfar participated in the [[ʿAlid]] revolts in Iraq and Arabia after the death of the caliph [https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Amin Amin], but he refused any involvement.

==Journey to Khorasan==

Rajaʾ thus conveyed both ʿAlids to Khorasan. The Imam seems to have made the pilgrimage to Mecca in this year accompanied by his five-year-old son Muhammad. He set out for Marv early in 201/late summer, 816. His travel route was, according to most sources, via Basra, Ahvaz, and Fars; this was natural since Baghdad and Kufa at this time were in the hands of rebels. Yaʿqubi’s statement that Rajaʾ traveled via Baghdad and Nehavand (Mah al-Basra) is thus erroneous. It is certain that the Imam did not pass through Qom. He visited Nishapur, where the prominent Sunni traditionists like Ebn Rahuya, Yahya b. Yahya, Muhammad b. Rafeʿ, and Ahmad b. Harb came out to meet him, and he stayed for some time in the town. Shiʿite sources report that next to the house where he stayed he planted an almond tree whose fruit had miraculous healing power. A bath in the quarter of his residence was known in the time of Ebn Babuya as Ḥammam al-Rida and people used to come to wash in and drink from a spring there where he had washed himself and prayed.  

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==Bibliography==

==Source==

[[Category: Individuals]]   

[[Category: Historical Character]]