Kofa's seminary and the writings concerning Mahdawiat

Kofa’s seminary, the greatest scientific center of the Islamic society in the first and second century A.H, was the center of many lingual, jurisprudential, and other sects. Nevertheless, we must keep in mind that the Shiite scholars and thinkers, that were mostly the students of the impeccable Imams, were the main axes of this seminary. Therefore, Imamate and specially Mahdawiat is inevitably among the important issues in this seminary. The importance of this issue is highlighted only when various sects such as “Kisaniya”, “Navoosiya”, “Fathiya”, and, “Waghifiya” claimed that some of the Imams or their children were the awaited Mahdi. In order to prove their claim, they even wrote books concerning Mahdawiyat and Imam Mahdi’s occultation. On the other hand, the great Shiite scholars wrote many works in this field to prove the essence of Mahdawiyat and reject the claim of the newly established sects. In this article, I have provided the name of most of these writings and their authors. These names are ordered chronologically based on the date of demise of the authors from the time of the establishment of Kofa’s seminary until the first years of the minor occultation, besides studying the fields of the books related to the issue of Mahdawiyat.