The Murshids and the Messiahs: popular Messianism as a grassroots political movement in contemporary Iran

ABSTRACT Messianic aspirations have been growing in Iran over the last two decades. With Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s coming to power in 2005 and his apocalyptic language including his claim to have direct connections with the hidden Imam, a noticeable shift took place in the religious and political orientation of the Islamic Republic. Does this flow represent a return to traditional Shiism or a break from it? In what way do Messianic aspirations challenge the Shiite theology of salvation and existing clerical rule? This paper attempts to answer these questions by examining popular Messianism and Mahdism (Mahdaviyyat). While popular Messianism is a redemptive political movement, Mahdism is a political project to reappropriate the popular imagination through the messianization of politics and hastening of the Parousia. Mahdism reveals a discursive turn in which the Iranian Revolution and the Islamic Republic are imagined as a prelude to the Parousia and the appearance of the Hidden Imam. Nevertheless, it resulted in the ‘routinization of the Messiah’. The paper examines the Messianic imagination and the ways in which it challenges clerical rules and investigates the dilemma it poses for it.