MARDI, THE. A term used in Muhammadanism. The word means " the Directed One," and is then used in the sense of " One who is ordained to direct others, as Guide or Leader." The Mandi is an ideal figure, a kind of Messiah (q.v.), to whose coming all Muslims have looked forward. When he appears be is to set all things right. According to al-Bukhari and other traditionists, utterances of the prophet Muhammad concerning him have been preserved. They include the following. " The world will not come to an end until a man of my tribe and of my name shall be master of Arabia. . . . The Mandi will be descended from me, he will be a man with an open countenance and with a high nose. He will fill the earth with equity and justice, even as it has been filled with tyranny and oppression, and be will reign over the earth seven years. . . . Quarrelling and disputation shall cease amongst men, and then shall a man of the people of al-Madinah come forth, and shall go from al-Madinah to Makkah. and the people of Makkah shall make him Imqm The Mandi shall rule according to the example of your Prophet, and shall give strength and stability to Islam. He shall reign for seven years, and then die. . . . There shall be much min in the days of the Mandi, and the inhabitants both of heaven and earth shall be pleased with him. Men's lives shall pass PO pleasantly, that they will wish even •the dead were alive again." The Shi`ah• (q.v.)
believe that the Mandi has already appeared in the person of Muhammad Ibn Hasan al-`Askari. Ibn Hasan dis appeared mysteriously about the year 878 A.D., when be was still a child. One tradition •says that be entered a cave to seek for his father and was never seen to come out. He will emerge from his hiding-place and manifest himself before the end of the world. As to his remani festation F. J. Bliss quotes an account obtained by Dr. Wortabet from a great Metawali leader. " At the appointed time he (the twelfth imam) will manifest him self to men. and will then be known by the name of Guide (El-Muhdy), and with Jesus, the son of Mary, will fill the whole world with the knowledge of God. . . . This set time is fast approaching. All this is a part of the settled faith of the Metawileh. Some of their learned men believe also that after the appearance of the Muhdy he will in due time die, and be succeeded by his own father, or predecessor in the office, who will be raised from death for this purpose; and a retrograde resur rection and succession will go one, until the twelve imams shall have risen and completed the regeneration of the world. After this will come the end, the judgment, and eternity." The Sunnis believe that the Mabdi has not yet appeared. See T. P. Hughes; F. J. Bliss.