4 - The Agents of the Nāḥiya in the Era of Perplexity

Summary

Canonized Twelver narratives imply that the “envoys” (sufarāʾ) of the hidden Imam were recognized as key authority figures immediately after the eleventh Imam’s death. However, it is argued inthat the authority of the agents was established piecemeal, and they came to be known collectively as the “nāḥiya,” a new term for the ambiguous Occultation-era institutions. The first of the canonized envoys, ʿUthmān b. Saʿīd al-ʿAmrī, is not depicted as an active agent in the earliest layer of reports. Instead, he appears as a mere eyewitness to the hidden Imam. Meanwhile, the earliest clearly active agents included several who were not canonized as envoys, and none emerges clearly as a preeminent “envoy.” Early reports indicate a rupture in authority when the old guard agents of Imam al-Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī all died out. The office of the “envoys” was only fully established thereafter, to fill this vacuum of authority.