-Historical Analysis of the Titles Related to Mahdi (with Emphasis on “Mansûr”, “Saffāh” and “Hojjat”)

One of the focal points of apocalyptic news goes back to the titles that have been used for the promised savior or the characters around him. In this research, three titles namely “Mansur”, “Saffāh” and “Hojjat” have been studied with a historical processing approach .The necessity and purpose of using such an approach, which is rarely seen in Mahdavi and historical works, is to reconstruct the mentality of Muslims in the first centuries on Mahdism and to present new interpretations of the promised endeavors, especially in the half of the second century A.H. That will be obtained by finding the roots, semantics and research application of the titles and by studying the earlier historical and hadith sources and presenting documentary analyzes. It seems that the mentioned titles, which were used by different parties and currents, had significant historical functions, especially in the first centuries of Islam. Because the titles Mansur and Safah later found a prominent place in the Abbasid movement and Hojjat also became a common title among the Shiites, Twelvers and the Isma’ilis, with different utilizations