Ibn Khaldûn on the Mahdî: Skeptic or Believer?

Timothy R. Furnish

The Mahdî, or "rightly-guided one," has been an important eschatological figure in Islamic thought and tradition. Ibn Khaldûn was a famous 14th c. Muslim social historian, influential throughout subsequent Islamic (and Western) history. His views on this subject have colored subsequent beliefs, especially in intellectual Sunni circles, coming down as they do-ultimately-on the side of doubt concerning the "future historicity" of the Mahdî and suspicion about Shî'î influences on Muslim eschatology.

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