Muhammad al-Jawad

Muhammad ibn Ali al-Jawad (Arabic: مُحَمَّدٌ بْنُ عَلِيٍّ ٱلْجَوَادُ, romanized: Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Jawād, c. 8 April 811 – c. 29 November 835), also known as Muhammad al-Taqi, was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the ninth of the Twelve Imams, succeeding his father Ali al-Rida. Born in Medina around 810, al-Jawad was the only child of al-Rida, the eighth Imam. When al-Rida left Medina after being summoned to Khorasan by the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun to assume the position of heir apparent, he did not take any of his family members with him. Muhammad al-Jawad was only four years old when his father reluctantly left Medina. Therefore, al-Jawad spent most of his childhood away from his father. Al-Rida's appointment provoked strong opposition amoung the Abbasids in Baghdad, which forced al-Ma'mun to return to the capital Baghdad in 818. On the way back, al-Rida suddenly fell ill and died mysteriously in Tus, likely poisoned by order of al-Ma'mun as he made concessions to the opposition. Upon the death of al-Rida, the succession of his only son al-Jawad to the Imamate at the age of seven became controversial, but many recognized his knowledge and religious authority. At the time, some instead turned for leadership to al-Jawad's uncle, Ahmad ibn Musa, and some others joined the Waqifites, but the succession of al-Jawad did not create any permanent divisions between Shia Muslims. Shia sources often justify the Imamate of the young al-Jawad by drawing parallels with Jesus and John the Baptist, both of whom in the Quran received their prophetic missions in childhood. Like most of his predecessors, al-Jawad kept aloof from politics and engaged in religious teaching, while organizing the affairs of the Shias through the network of representatives (wukalāʾ). The extensive correspondence of al-Jawad with his followers on questions of Islamic law has been preserved in Shia sources, and numerous pithy religio-ethical sayings are attributed to him. In 830, al-Jawad was summoned to Baghdad by al-Ma'mun, who married his daughter Umm Fadhl to the former. This marriage, however, was to be without issue and might have been infelicitous. His successor, Ali al-Hadi, was already born to Samana, a freed slave (umm walad). In 833, al-Ma'mun died and was succeeded by his brother, al-Mu'tasim, who summoned al-Jawad again to Baghdad in 835 and hosted him and his wife, possibly to investigate any links between al-Jawad and new Alid revolts. Al-Jawad died in the same year at the age of about twenty-five. All Sunni sources are silent about the manner of his death, while Shia authorities are nearly unanimous that he was poisoned by his disaffected wife, Umm al-Fadl, at the instigation of her uncle, al-Mu'tasim. Al-Jawad is buried next to his grandfather and the seventh Imam, Musa al-Kazim, in the Al-Kazimiyya Mosque, a holy site in Shia Islam.

Titles Muhammad ibn Ali, the ninth of the Twelve Imams, is occasionally known in Shia sources as al-Taqi (Arabic: التقى, lit. 'the pious'), but more commonly as al-Jawad (Arabic: الجواد, lit. 'the generous') for his munificence. The Imam is cited in the Shia hadith literature as Abu Ja'far al-Thani (Arabic: ابو جعفر الثاني, lit. 'Abu Ja'far, the second'), with the title Abu Ja'far reserved for his predecessor, Muhammad al-Baqir (d. 732), the fifth of the Twelve Imams. His kunya is Abu Ali (Arabic: ابو علي), though he was also known by his contemporaries as Ibn al-Rida (Arabic: ابن الرضا, lit. 'son of al-Rida') because he was the only child of Ali al-Rida.

Life

Birth (c. 810) Muhammad al-Jawad was born in Medina, or in a village near Medina founded by his grandfather, Musa al-Kazim (d. 799). Sources seem to agree that he was born 195 AH (810–811) but the exact date is disputed. Most Twelver sources record mid-Ramadan 195 AH (mid-June 811) as the birthday of Muhammad but Ibn Ayyas (d. 1522/1524) favors 10 Rajab 195 AH (8 April 811). This latter date agrees with Ziyarat al-Nahiya al-Muqaddasa, a supplication attributed to Muhammad al-Mahdi, the last of the Twelve Imams. It is this date that the Shia celebrate annually. His father Ali al-Rida, the eighth of the Twelve Imams, was a descendant of Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661) and Fatima (d. 632), who were the cousin and the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, respectively. Most records agree that the mother of Muhammad al-Jawad was a freed slave (umm walad) from Nubia, though her name is given differently in sources as Sabika or Durra (sometimes Khayzuran). She might have belonged to the family of Maria al-Qibtiyya, a freed slave of the prophet and the mother of his son Ibrahim, who died in childhood.

Reign of al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833)

Marriage (c. 817) Muhammad stayed behind in Medina when his father al-Rida traveled to Merv in Khorasan at the request of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833). The caliph designated al-Rida as the heir apparent in 202 AH (817), and also changed the official Abbasid color of black to green, possibly to signify this reconciliation between the Abbasids and the Alids. To form a political alliance, the caliph also married one of his daughters, named Umm Habib, to al-Rida in 202 AH (817) and promised another daughter, named Umm al-Fadl, to Muhammad, who was still a minor at the time, aged about seven. Among Sunni historians, al-Tabari (d. 923), Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur (d. 893), and Ibn al-Athir al-Jazari (d. 1232–1233) agree on this report. It is likely that Muhammad was absent from the ceremony, even though Abu'l-Hasan Bayhaqi (d. 1169) relates that he visited his father in Merv in 202 AH (817). In contrast, the Sunni historian al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (d. 1071) and the Shia-leaning historians Al-Masudi (d. 956) and Ya'qubi (d. 897–898) place the betrothal of Muhammad after the death of al-Rida in 204 AH (819), following the return of al-Ma'mun to his capital Baghdad. In particular, al-Mas'udi in his Ithbat al-wassiya writes that al-Ma'mun summoned Muhammad to Baghdad, settled him near his palace, and later decided to marry him to his daughter, Umm Fadl, whose given name was Zaynab. According to al-Baghdadi, Muhammad was about nine years old at the time of this betrothal.

Death of his father (c. 818)

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