page_title: Mahdi
section_title: Persons claiming to be the Mahdi
hierarchical_section_title: Mahdi / Persons claiming to be the Mahdi
caption_attribution_description: Muhammad Ahmad
context_page_description: The Mahdi is an eschatological redeemer of Islam who, according to some Islamic traditions, will appear and rule for five, seven, nine, or nineteen years before the Day of Judgment and rid the world of evil.
  There is no direct reference to the Mahdi in the Quran, only in the hadith. In most traditions, the Mahdi will arrive with 'Isa to defeat Al-Masih ad-Dajjal. Although the concept of a Mahdi is not an essential doctrine in Sunni Islam, it is popular among both Sunni and Shia Muslims. Both agree that he will rule over Muslims and establish justice; however, they differ extensively on his attributes and status.
  Throughout history, various individuals have claimed to be or were proclaimed to be the Mahdi. These have included Muhammad Jaunpuri, founder of the Mahdavia sect; the Báb, founder of Bábism; Muhammad Ahmad, who established the Mahdist State in Sudan in the late 19th century; Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadiyya movement; Massoud Rajavi, leader of the MEK, Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi, and Wallace Fard Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam.
  Shi'ites have alternate views on which descendant of the Islamic Nabi Muhammad is the Mahdi.
context_section_description: The following individuals (or their adherents on their behalf) have claimed to be the Mahdi:
  The first historical reference to a movement using the name of Mahdi is al-Mukhtar's rebellion against the Umayyad caliphate in 686 CE, almost 50 years after Muhammad's death. Al-Mukhtar claimed that Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah, a son of the fourth caliph, Ali, was the Mahdi and would save the Muslim people from the rule of the Umayyads. Ibn al-Hanifiyyah himself was not actively involved in the rebellion, and when the Umayyads successfully quashed it, they left him undisturbed.
  Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (985 – 13 February 1021), founder of the Druze sect.
  Ibn Tumart (1080-1130) founder and religious leader of the Almohad Caliphate in Morocco and Al-andalus
  Muhammad Jaunpuri (1443–1505), founder of the Mahdavi sect. (See above.)
  Ahmed ibn Abi Mahalli (1559–1613), from the south of Morocco, was a Qādī and religious scholar who proclaimed himself mahdi and led a revolution (1610–13) against the reigning Saadi dynasty.
  The Báb, (`Alí-Muḥammad Shírází), from Iran, founded a new religion in 1844 A.D. (1260 A.H) that came into opposition with the clergy of the time. In 1850 he was executed by firing squad in the town of Tabriz.
  Muhammad Ahmad (1845–1885), a Sudanese Sufi sheikh of the Samaniyya order, declared himself Mahdi in June 1881 and went on to lead a successful military campaign against the Turko-Egyptian government of Sudan.  Although he died shortly after capturing the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, in 1885, the Mahdist state continued under his successor, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, until 1898, when it fell to the British army following the Battle of Omdurman.
  Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908) claimed to be both the Mahdi and the second coming of Jesus in the late nineteenth century in British India and founded the Ahmadiyya religious movement in 1889. (See above.)
  Muhammad bin abd Allah al-Qahtani was proclaimed the Mahdi by his brother-in-law, Juhayman al-Otaibi, who led over 200 militants to seize the Grand Mosque in Mecca in November 1979. The uprising was defeated after a two-week siege in which at least 300 people were killed.
  Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Aftah ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq
  Musa al-Kadhim (according to the Waqifite Shia)
  Muhammad ibn Qasim (al-Alawi)
  Yahya ibn Umar
  Muhammad ibn Ali al-Hadi
  Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi (according to Messiah Foundation International)
  Wallace Fard Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam
  Seydina Imamou lah Al Mahdi, founder of the Layene community in Dakar Senegal in 1883. He ruled for 40 years and was replaced by Insa Ibn Mariam at the age of 33. Insa ruled for 40 years.
caption: Muhammad Ahmad, a Sudanese Sufi sheikh, created a state, the Mahdiyah, on the basis of his claim to be the Mahdi.
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