AD 874

Hasan al-Askari

Death of Hasan al-Askari and the Twelver Succession Crisis

Al-Askari's visible estate went to his mother and his brother — the most immediate sign that no son was publicly acknowledged.

Samarra, 874

Hasan al-Askari, recognized by Imami Shiʿites as the eleventh Imam, died at Samarra on 8 Rabi I 260 AH, converted by Encyclopaedia Iranica to 1 January 874.

Even that is not uniform. His death is also given as 8 Jumada I 260 AH, which Iranica converts to 1 March 874, and other modern summaries use 873–874 because of calendar conversion and source differences.

He left no publicly recognized son. His estate passed to his mother and his brother Jaʿfar, who was accepted as Imam by some followers.

A community with no Imam

The death without an obvious male heir created a crisis for a community whose theology required the continuing presence of a legitimate Imam, and his followers split into groups offering different solutions.

The group that developed into Twelver Shiʿism maintained that al-Askari had a young son named Muhammad who had entered divinely protected concealment. Tradition puts the boy at about five years old, not an infant.

Whether al-Askari left such a son is a tenet of Twelver faith, and remains disputed as a question of recoverable history.

The deputies came later

Agents including Uthman ibn Saʿid and his son claimed to act for the concealed son.

The fully developed doctrine of four successive deputies is not found in sources from the first decades after the death; it was systematized in later tenth- and eleventh-century works.

In official Twelver doctrine the Minor Occultation begins immediately with al-Askari's death and runs until regular communication ends in 941 — nearly seventy lunar years.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at 0874-01-01.

What the sources leave uncertain

Al-Askari’s death is also given as 8 Jumada I 260 AH, converted by Iranica to 1 March 874; other modern summaries use 873–874 because of calendar conversion and source differences.
The existence of Muhammad as al-Askari’s son is a tenet of Twelver faith but remains disputed as a question of recoverable history.
The neat institutional sequence of four deputies was systematized in later tenth- and eleventh-century works; early sources do not present the structure in its mature form.
The terms Minor and Major Occultation describe later doctrinal periodization, not necessarily labels publicly announced in 874.