Abu Hashim Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya

Abu Hashim Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him). Al-Suyuti relates a report of his meeting with Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Abbas. ²

He went out to Syria and met Muhammad ibn Ali al-Abbasi. He said to him: "O cousin, I have a knowledge that I wish to pass to you, and you are not to let anyone know of it: this matter the people hope for is in you." Muhammad answered that he knew it, and asked that no one hear it from him. ²

Al-Suyuti holds that in this report lies the origin of the claim that the imamate was bequeathed from the family of Ali to the family of al-Abbas. ²

• The report is from al-Suyuti alone; a second source is needed. The other views on this claim are not set out here.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.) entry describes Abu Hashim 'Abd Allah, the Shi'ite leader and son of Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya, whom he succeeded as head of the smaller branch of the Shi'a (see Kaysaniyya). The article says that the only information about him concerns his death and his testament in favour of the 'Abbasids. Old historical and heresiographical sources relate that he went with a group of Shi'ites to the court of Sulayman b. 'Abd al-Malik, who, afraid of his intelligence and authority, had him poisoned on the return journey. Feeling death near, he made a detour to Humayma, not far from the residence of the 'Abbasids, and died there after bequeathing his rights to the imamate to Muhammad b. 'Ali. The article notes that this tradition is generally taken as an invention of the pro-'Abbasid party, but that stripped of its incongruities it may contain a kernel of truth. ³