Historical Process of Muslim Belief in the Name of Mahdi from the Beginning to the End of the Age of Appearance (260 AH)

Belief in the Mahdi is one of the commonalities of Islamic sects, but of course these sects differ from each other in its application and details. One of these cases is the issue of "the name of Mahdi", which played a role in the events of the first centuries of Islam. Therefore, it will be necessary to recognize the Muslim belief in the name of Mahdi to represent the roots and contexts of political and social movements at that time; as the historical study of the belief in the name of Mahdi with an evolutionary approach to provide realistic analysis, helps the process of expanding the belief of Mahdi's thought in Islamic society.
Using historical, hadith and sectalogy sources and benefiting from data analysis, the present study tries to provide a clear picture of the belief process of different Muslim groups called Mahdi. It seems that this issue has been associated with different approaches among Shiites and Sunnis. In the meantime, different Shiite groups, including the Twelver Shiite, have also had differences of opinion. Moreover, political events and the hadith heritage of the Prophet of Islam (pbuh) regarding the nominal similarity of Mahdi with himself have played a role in highlighting some names such as "Mohammad".