Imam Mahdi Or Dajjal From Khurasan
The people created a whole new narrative from the Ahadith of a Generous and just Khaliph, confused it with the words Mehdi, which was one of his attributes, and then fabricated new Ahadith about Mehdi and created a new character.
Yes, I am aware of that. But I’m confused as to how that answers the question of why there seem to be two narratives in the narrations. Both of them quite similar, one mentioning a malevolent leader another a righteous leader. Both emerging near the end of time from the same region. Is it that if we take the ahadith about mahdi to be prophesying the rule of Syedna Muaviah, then does it follow that narrators confused the Dajjal hadith and merged it with the later prevalent idea of mahdi figure?