“The world will not come to an end until a man of my tribe and of my name shall be master of Arabia.”
“When you see black ensigns coming from the direction of K͟horasān, then join them, for the Imām of God will be with the standards, whose name is al-Mahdī.”
“The Mahdī will be descended from me, he will be a man with an open countenance and with a high nose. He will fill the earth with equity and justice, even as it has been filled with tyranny and oppression, and he will reign over the earth seven years.”
“Quarrelling and disputation shall exist amongst men, and then shall a man of the people of al-Madīnah come forth, and shall go from al-Madīnah to Makkah, and the people of Makkah shall make him Imām. Then shall the ruler of Syria send an army against the Mahdī, but the Syrian army shall perish by an earthquake near Badāʾ, between al-Madīnah and Makkah. And when the people shall see this, the Abdāl [[ABDAL]] will come from Syria, and also a multitude from al-ʿIrāq. After this an enemy to the Mahdī shall arise from the Quraish tribe, whose uncles shall be of the tribe of Kalb, and this man shall send an army against the Mahdī. The Mahdī shall rule according to the example of your Prophet, and shall give strength and stability to Islām. He shall reign for seven years, and then die.”
“There shall be much rain in the days of the Mahdī and the inhabitants both of heaven and earth shall be pleased with him. Men’s lives shall pass so pleasantly, that they will wish even the dead were alive again.” (Mishkātu ʾl-Maṣābiḥ, book xxiii. ch. 3.)
According to Shīʿah traditions, Muḥammad is related to have said: “O ye people! I am the Prophet and ʿAlī is my heir, and from us will descend al-Mahdī, the seal (i.e. the last) of the Imāms, who will conquer all religions and take vengeance on the wicked. He will take fortresses and will destroy them, and slay every tribe of idolaters, and he will avenge the deaths of the martyrs of God. He will be the champion of the Faith, and a drawer of water at the fountain of divine knowledge. He will reward merit and requite every fool according to his folly. He will be the approved and chosen of God, and the heir of all knowledge. He will be the valiant in doing right, and one to whom the Most High has entrusted Islām.… O ye people, I have explained to you, and ʿAlī also will make you understand it.” (Ḥayātu ʾl-Qulūb, Merrick’s ed., p. 342.)
It is probable that it is from these traditions that the opinion became current amongst the Christians that the Muḥammadans expected their Prophet would rise again.
MAḤJŪR (محجور). A slave inhibited by the ruler from exercising any office or agency. (Hidāyah, vol. iii. 5.)
MAḤMAL, MAḤMIL (محمل). A covered litter borne on a camel, both from Cairo and from Damascus, to Makkah, as an emblem of royalty at the time of the pilgrimage.
It is said that Sult̤ān Az̤-Z̤āhir Beybars, King of Egypt, was the first who sent a maḥmal with the caravan of pilgrims to Makkah in A.D. 1272, but that it had its origin a few years before his accession to the throne, under the following circumstances:—