IMAM. ARAB. A leader ; the president of a mosque ; the person who leads the daily prayer and is in receipt of the revenues of the mosque ; also the title of the four great doctors of the four orthodox Sunni sects ; also the title of the twelve great leaders of the Shiah sects ; but it is also given to any great religious leader, head, or chief in religious matters, whether the head of all Mahomedans as the khalif, or the priest of a mosque, or the leader in the prayers of the con gregation. Imam answers to the Latin Antistes. In the Koran (chap. ii. vers. 118-20), God said unto him, Abraham, I thee Imam unto men,' that is, a model of religion.
After the death of Mahomed, his successors, the khalifs, became his delegates or lieutenants, and were also termed Imam or leader. When Ma homedans meet together for prayer, an Imam is chosen who leads the prayer, and the congrega tion regulate their attitudes by his, prostrating themselves when he does so, and rising when he rises. In like manner the khalif is set up on high as the Imam or leader of the faithful in all the business of life. He must be a scrupulous observer of the law himself, and diligent in en forcing it upon others. The election of an Imam is imperative (p. 229). The fourth Sura says, Obey God and his prophet and those of your people who exercise government over you.' The qualities of an Imam are knowledge, integrity, mental and physical soundness.
Imam is a sacred title with the Shiahs, and is given only to Ali and the immediate successors of the Prophet, who were twelve in number, their Bara-Imam. The last of these, the Imam Mandi, is supposed by them to be concealed (not dead), and the title which belongs to him cannot, they conceive, be given to another. Among the Sunni Mahomedans, however, it is a dogma, that there must be always a visible Imam or father of the church. It was long maintained that the Imam must be descended from the Arabian tribe of Koresh ; but the emperors of Constantinople (who are of a Turk family) have assumed the sacred title, which they claim on the ground of the formal renunciation of it by Muhammad the twelfth, the last khalif of the race of Abbas, in favour of Selim the first. The acknowledgment of this title renders the emperor of Turkey the spiritual head of all orthodox Mahomedans.
The sect of Mahomedans who believe that the Imam Mandi has come and gone, are the Mandavi, or, as•others call them, Chair Mandavi, i.e. people without Mandi. About the year 657 A.D., or some twenty-five years after the death of Mahomed, his son-in-law Ali met Muavia, and fought the battle of Siffin. Displeased at the conduct of All on
that occasion, about twelve thousand men deserted him. Some years after, they were nearly all de stroyed by Ali ; but a few survivors fled to various parts. Two men settled in Oman, and there preached their distinctive doctrine of the Imamat, that is, they taught that the office of Head of the Faithful' was elective, and not hereditary. They thus differed from the ordinary Shiahs, who hold the doctrine of divine right in its entirety, and never can acknowledge any khalif or chief who is not descended from Ali. Some fifty years after this, one Abdullah-ibn-Abad vigorously preached the doctrine of the right of the people to elect the khalif, or, as they would call their head, the Imam. It is from him that the sect of the Ibadiyah, an offshoot of the Shiahs proper, takes its rise. They elected their own. Imam, and thus arose the jurisdiction of the Imam of Oman. From.
this potentate came the Sultan of Zanzibar. This allows hovi entirely free they are from any allegiance to the Sunni khalif. No 'Wirth ever cknowledged the khalif of Baghdad as his spiritual lief, much less is he likely to recognise one in telt a doubtful successor to tho office as the )ttoman Sultan. It is not known that the ruler t Muscat has ever laid claim to the title of Imam, hough Europeans invariably confer it on him. num is, however, said to be now adopted as a oyal or dignatory title by several Arab and • frican sovereigns. The successors of Mahomed outinued to exercise their religious functions in roof that they enjoyed spiritual as well as emporal power, and took the title of khalif ; but 'arious Arab princes, who dared not aspire to the 'tie of khalif, took that of Imam, to which they requently added that of Atuir-ul-Mominin, or wince of the faithful, and, like the khalifs, the precaution of changing their name vhen they ascended the throne. custom erred to typify that their whole nature under 'cut a change, on being invested with an office to 'hick a certain amount of sanctity was attached. Of the twelve Imams of the Shiah sect, one was main-Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Mahomed, 'ho married Fatima, daughter ; the wo sons of Ali, the Imam Husain and Imam Hasan, either of whom were successful leaders, though ince their deaths they have by some sects been eified and believed to be incarnate (Ali, Dahl). In every Sunni mosque, at the appointed rayers, there is a leader of the devotions, who is ailed the Pesh-Imam, because ho remains in front Pesh) of the worshippers, leading them in the :ucccssive parts of their worship.