Hasan al-Askari (Arabic: الحَسَن بْن عَلِيّ ٱلْعَسْكَرِيّ, romanized: al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-ʿAskarī; c. 844 – c. 874) was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the eleventh of the Twelve Imams, and father of the Muhammad al-Mahdi in Twelver Shia Islam. He was born in Medina in 844 and brought with his father, Ali al-Hadi, to the garrison town of Samarra in 848, where the Abbasid caliphs held them under close surveillance until their deaths, even though neither were politically active. After the death of al-Hadi in 868, the majority of his followers acknowledged his son, al-Askari, as the next Imam. Al-Askari's contact with Shia Muslims was restricted by the Abbasid caliphs and instead, he communicated with his followers through the network of representatives. He died in Samarra in 873 at the age of about twenty-eight and was buried in the family home next to his father, which later developed into the Al-Askari Shrine, a holy site in Shia Islam. Shia sources hold the Abbasids responsible for the death of al-Askari and his father. A well-known early Shia commentary of the Quran is attributed to al-Askari. Al-Askari died without leaving an heir, which created widespread confusion and fragmented the Shia Muslims into several sects, all of which either disappeared in a few decades or absorbed within the mainstream Twelver Shia Islam. The Twelvers hold that al-Askari had a son, named Muhammad al-Mahdi, who was kept hidden from the public out of the fear of Abbasid persecution. He is identified as the Mahdi, the awaited messianic and eschatological figure who will reappear by God's permission to fill the earth with justice. Al-Mahdi succeeded to the Imamate after the death of his father and entered occultation. His life is said to be miraculously prolonged until the day he manifests himself again. Though in occultation, al-Mahdi still remains responsible for the spiritual guidance of mankind, and the Shia accounts of his occasional encounters with the pious are numerous and popular.
Titles Hasan ibn Ali is known by the titles al-Samet (lit. 'the quiet'), al-Hadi (lit. 'the guide'), and al-Zaki (lit. 'the pure'), though his most common title is al-Askari (lit. 'military')، on the account of his almost life-long detention in Samarra, a garrison town not far from Baghdad which was the capital of the Abbasids at the time. As a great-grandson of Ali al-Rida, the eighth of the Twelve Imams, Hasan was also known by his contemporaries as Ibn al-Rida (lit|"son of al-Rida").
Life
Birth and early life Most Shia sources state that Hasan ibn Ali was born in Rabi' al-Awwal 230 AH (November 844), though other given dates range from 845 to 847. The Shia currently celebrate 8 Rabi' al-Thani as his birthday. Hasan was born in Medina, though Donaldson has cast doubt on this, as he is uncertain between Medina and Samarra. His father was the tenth Shia Imam, Ali al-Hadi, and his mother was a freed slave (umm walad), whose name is variously given as Hudayth, Susan, or Salil in different sources. At the age of about two, Hasan was brought to Samarra with his father in 233 or 234 AH (847–849), where the latter was held under close surveillance by the Abbasid caliphs until his death in 254 (868), some twenty years later. When Hasan was about twenty-two, an agent of his father is said to have providentially bought a Byzantine concubine, named Narjis (Narcissus), who was given to Hasan in marriage, and later bore him his only son. Other sources give her name variously as Sayqal, Sawsan, and Rayhana. The detailed accounts of Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi and Shaykh Tusi describe Narjis as a captured granddaughter of the Byzantine emperor and a pious woman who was told in a dream about her future union with Hasan, though these accounts have been described as hagiographic. Some other accounts describe Narjis as Nubian.
During the reign of Abbasids A significant part of al-Askari's life, both during his own imamate and his father's, was spent in a situation where the Abbasid Caliphate had become a tool for rival emirs who played an effective role in the government system. The hostile rivalries between the emirs of the Abbasid system had caused the caliphs to hold the caliphate for short periods, which had severely weakened the foundations of the caliphate.
Reign of al-Mustain Perhaps the first recorded political stance in the life of al-Askari dates back to when he was about 20 years old and his father was still alive. In fact, it was in 252 AH, two years before he assumed the Imamate, that al-Askari reportedly wrote a letter, addressed to a Tahirid emir, Abu Ahmad Ubaydullah ibn Abdullah ibn Tahir, (the brother of Tahir ibn Abdallah, the emir of Khorasan), who was an opponent of al-Musta'in, in which he calls the caliph a "tyrant" and asks God to remove him. Shortly after, following a rebellion against Musta'in, he was deposed and al-Mu'tazz succeeded him as caliph. According to Ibn Athir, Abu Ahmad Tahiri himself played an important role in the rebellion against al-Musta'in and his killing.
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