Al-Kaysāniyya was a Shīʿī sect that arose from the revolt led by the freedman al-Mukhtār b. Abī ʿUbayd al-Thaqafī (d. 67/687) in Kufa in 66/686. This was the first Shīʿī movement to give expression to the messianic belief that its leader, the legitimate ruler descending from the family of the Prophet, was not dead, but in concealment (ghayba). According to that belief, which would then be accepted and elaborated upon by all subsequent expressions of Shīʿism, the Hidden Imām would return to establish a regime of justice on earth.

The historical context in which al-Kaysāniyya originat…