Dedication

Preface

Introduction

Survey of the Sources

The Role of Traditions in the Occultation of the Twelfth Imam

The Role of the Imams in the Shiite Underground Activities and their Influence upon the Evolution of the Ghayba

The Imamites’ Views concerning the Concealed Imam and His Birth

The Underground Activities of the Twelth Imam as seen in the Actions of the Saf’irs

The Underground Activities of the Second Saf’ir of the Twelfth Imam

The Career of the Third Saf’ir, al-Nawabakhti

The Fourth Saf’ir and the Complete Occultation of the Twelfth Imam

Conclusion

Bibliography

List of Abbreviations Employed in the Footnotes and in the Bibliography

(with a Foreword by Dr. I.K.A Howard, Edinburg University) A study of
the occultation of the Twelfth Imam using rarely consulted early Shi’ite
sources, covering the time period from Ja'far al-Sadiq, the Sixth Imam,
to the end of the lesser occultation of the Twelfth Imam.


The Occultation of the Twelfth Imam (A Historical Background)

Dedication
==========

This book is dedicated to Khair Allah al-Sa'dani and L. K. Hussain
without whose moral support and academic assistance it would have never
been written.


