He went on to say: “The true Imam had been living in Salamiyya, lodging with a Jewish perfumer called ʿUbayd. The man served him faithfully and kept his identity secret. When ʿUbayd died, he left two sons; the Imam brought the two boys and their mother into Islam, married the woman, and remained in hiding, while the two brothers continued to run the perfume shop.

She later bore the Imam two sons. When I met him, I asked, ‘Which of these two will be my Imam after you?’ He replied, ‘Whichever of them comes to you—that one is your Imam.’

So I sent my brother to fetch them. He found that their father had died and that one of the two boys had died as well, and he brought back this remaining one. I feared, however, that he might in fact be one of ʿUbayd’s sons.

They asked, ‘What have you found objectionable about him?’

I said, ‘The Imam knows what will happen before it takes place, yet this man arrived with two children. He then designated the younger of them as his successor, but the child died twenty days later—had he truly been an Imam, he would have known of his own death.’

They said, ‘What else?’

I replied, ‘The Imam does not wear silk or gold, yet this man has worn both. Nor may he have relations except with women whose status is certain, whereas he has slept with the womenfolk of Ziyādat Allah, the ruler of the Maghrib.’

At that, the people of Kutāma grew doubtful about him. They asked, ‘What do you propose?’

I said, ‘We seize him and then send someone to ascertain who the Imam’s real sons are.’ They all agreed.

The chief of Kutāma hastened to confront al-Mahdī and said, ‘We have come to doubt you; bring us a sign.’ Al-Mahdī answered with arguments that satisfied his reason and said, ‘You once possessed certainty, and certainty is only removed by another certainty—not by doubt. The child has not died; he is your Imam. The Imams merely move from place to place, and he has gone on to reform another region.’

The chief responded, ‘I accept that. But why do you wear silk?’

He replied, ‘I am the deputy of the Law; I may declare lawful for myself whatever I wish. All wealth belongs to me, and Ziyādat Allah was a rebel.’

As for Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Shīʿī and his brother, when they began to spread sedition against him, he had them both killed. (1)