Twenty years in Samarra
Ali b. Muhammad al-Hadi (a), the tenth Imam, became Imam at eight on the martyrdom of his father al-Jawad (a) in 220 AH. In 233 AH the caliph al-Mutawakkil, alarmed by his following in Madinah, summoned him to the new capital at Samarra and kept him there for the rest of his life under watch — twenty years and nine months. Even so he taught, corresponded, ran the network of deputies that linked the Shia of Iran, Iraq and beyond, and composed the great Ziyarat al-Jami'a al-Kabira, the fullest statement of Shia belief about the Imams in the form of a visitation.
Martyrdom
He was poisoned in the reign of al-Mu'tazz and died in Rajab 254 AH; al-Mufid and most Shia scholars give the third of the month, others the end of Jumada al-Thani. His son Imam al-Askari (a) washed and prayed over him; the crowd at the funeral was so great that the caliph's brother had the body set down in the street to pray over it himself. He was buried in the house in which he had been confined.
The shrine
His grave and his son's became the Askariyyayn shrine, twice bombed by extremists in 2006 and 2007 and rebuilt. The third of Rajab is one of the mourning days of the month in which the Shia also celebrate three births.
Written for Shia Online Community. Dates and facts are checked against the references listed under Research & books; where the tradition records more than one date, all are given.
