Shiite Extremists in Early Muslim Iraq Saba’iyya and Kaisaniyya and Bayaniyya William F. Tucker

Mahdis and Millenarians by William Tucker is a discussion of Shiite groups in eighthـ and ninthـcentury Iraq and Iran, which according to the author their ideas reflected a mixture of indigenous nonـMuslim religious teachings and practices in Iraq in the early centuries of Islamic rule. Particular attention is given to the millenarian expectations and the revolutionary political activities of these sects. Specifically, the author’s intention is to define the term “millenarian” to explain how these groups reflect that definition, and to show how they consequently need to be seen in a much larger context than Shiite or even simply Muslim history. The author concentrates, therefore, on the historicalـsociological role of these movements. The central thesis of the author is to demonstrate that they were the first revolutionary chiliastic groups in Islamic history and, combined with the later influence of some of their doctrines, contributed to the tactics and teachings of a number of subsequent Shiite or quasiـShiite sectarian groups. This study translates and criticizes the two articles of the book of Mahdis and Millenarians with titles of “Earlier movement “(containing of Saba’iyya and Kissaniyya) and “Bayan ibn Sam’an and Bayaniyya”. In the criticism chapter, the nobility of shiism and it’s doctrines such as Vesaya’, Mahdaviat, Bada’, and presence of shiism at the lifetime of prophet Mohammad are demonstrated and is proofed that their teachings are not affected by other religions such as Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Gnostics or by Abdollah ibn Saba’