147
839–1342/1435–1924
‘Arabistan, in south-western Persia
|
839/1435 |
Sayyid Muḥammad b. Falāḥ b. Haybat Allāh, walī of the Mahdī or Twelfth Imām, d. 870/1466, first period of rule |
|
(857–61/1453–7) |
Sayyid Sulṭān ‘Alī b. Muḥammad, as his father’s deputy) |
|
861/1457 |
Sayyid Muḥammad b. Falāḥ, second period of rule |
|
870/1466 |
Sayyid Sulṭān Muḥsin b. Muḥammad, d. 905/1500 or c. 914/c. 1508 |
|
⊘ ? |
Sayyid Falāḥ b. Muḥsin, d. 920/1514 |
|
920/1514 |
Sayyid Badrān b. Falāḥ, Shujā‘ al-Dīn, d. soon after 988/1580 |
|
c. 988/c. 1580 |
Sayyid Sajjād b. Badrān |
|
before 992/1584 |
Sayyid ‘Alī b. Sajjād |
|
992/1584 |
Sayyid Zunbūr ‘Alī b. ‘Alī, in Khūzistān until 998/1590 |
|
995/1587 |
Sayyid Mubārak b. (‘Abd al–) Muṭṭalib b. Badrān, in Ḥuwayza, with the additional title of Khān |
|
1025/1616 |
Sayyid Nāṣir b. Mubārak |
|
1025/1616 |
Sayyid Rāshid b. Salīm b. Muṭṭalib, k. shortly after his appointment |
|
1030/1621 |
Sayyid Manṣūr b. Muṭṭalib, first governorship |
|
1033/1624 |
Sayyid Muḥammad b. Mubārak |
|
after 1042/1632 |
Sayyid Manṣūr, second governorship |
|
1053/1643 |
Sayyid Baraka b. Manṣūr |
|
1060/1650 |
Sayyid ‘Alī b. Khalaf b. Muṭṭalib, d. 1092/1681 |
|
1097/1686 |
Sayyid Ḥaydar (? or ‘Abdallāh) b. Khalaf |
|
1097/1686 |
Sayyid Faraj Allāh b. ‘Alī |
|
1112/1700 |
Sayyid ‘Alī, nephew of Faraj Allāh, first governorship |
|
1114/1707 |
Sayyid ‘Abdallāh b. Faraj Allāh |
|
1127/1715 |
Sayyid ‘Alī, second governorship |
|
1132/1720 |
Sayyid Muḥammad b. ‘Abdallāh |
|
1150/1737 |
Sayyid Faraj Allāh, in Dawraq, until 1160/1747 |
|
1060/1747 |
Sayyid Muṭṭalib b. Muḥammad, in Ḥuwayza, k. 1176/1762 |
|
? |
Sayyid Mawlā Jūd Allāh, cousin of Muṭṭalib |
|
? |
Sayyid Mawlā Ismā’īl |
|
c. 1193/c. 1779 |
Sayyid Mawlā Muḥsin b. Jūd Allāh |
|
? |
Sayyid Mawlā Muḥammad b. Jūd Allāh |
|
after 1212/1797 |
Sayyid Mawlā Muṭṭalib b. Muḥammad |
|
? |
Sayyid Mawlā ‘Abd al-‘Alī |
|
1257/1841 |
Sayyid Mawlā Faraj Allāh, governor of Khūzistān |
|
1289/1872 |
Sayyid Mawlā Muḥammad b. Naṣr Allāh |
|
1298/1881 |
Sayyid Mawlā Muṭṭalib b. Naṣr Allāh, after c. 1312/c. 1895 in Dizfūl |
|
c. 1305/c. 1888 |
Sayyid Mawlā Naṣr Allāh, in Ḥuwayza |
|
? |
Sayyid Mawlā ‘Abd al-‘Alī, to 1328/1910 |
|
1328–42/1910–24 |
Musha‘sha‘ī nominee in Ḥuwayza of Shaykh Khaz‘al of Muḥammara |
|
1342/1924 |
Restoration of ‘Abd al-‘Alī as Shaykh of Ḥuwayza by Riḍā Khān |
The Musha‘sha‘ī movement arose in the fifteenth century in southern Khūzistān, in the region which in more recent times has come to be known as ‘Arabistān. Although this region at the head of the Persian Gulf was ethnically Arab, it became the home of a typically Persia extremist Shī‘ī millenarian movement; and the Musha‘sha‘ family, throughout nearly 500 years of its existence, was always linked politically with the rulers of Persia rather than with those in Iraq (latterly, in fact, the Ottomans). Sayyid Muḥammad b. Falāḥ proclaimed his ẓuhūr or manifestation as the ḥijāb or ‘shield ’ of the Expected Imām, in opposition to the Qara Qoyunlu rulers of Iraq (see above, no. 145); the name Musha‘sha‘ seems to have connotations (cf. shu‘ā‘ ‘ray of light’) of illuminationism, a perceptible strain within Shī‘ism as it was to develop in Ṣafawid Persia.
During the fifteenth century, the Musha‘sha‘ were independent local rulers based on Ḥuwayza or Ḥawāza, and this was their heyday as a religio-political movement. Once the Ṣafawid Shāh Ismā‘īl I (see below, no. 148) had extended his power into Khūzistān in 920/1514, the Musha‘sha‘ were reduced to submission, and over the next centuries generally functioned as walls or governors for the Persian monarchs. At the end of the nineteenth century, their local influence was overshadowed by the rise of the rulers of Muḥammara from the Arab Banū Kalb, but the Musha‘sha‘ family nevertheless managed to survive up to the time of Riḍā Shāh Pahlawi (see below, no. 152).
Album, 54.
EI2 ‘Musha‘sha‘’ (P. Luft).
W. Caskel, ‘Ein Mahdī des 15. Jahrhunderts. Saijid Muḥammad ibn Falāḥ und seine Nachkommen’, Islamica, 4 (1931), 48–93, with a genealogical stem at p. 75.
idem, ‘Die Wall’s von Ḥuwēzeh’, Islamica, 6 (1934), 415–34, with a genealogical stem and list at pp. 424–32.