The Samarra Institute for Shi’i Studies is a research institution that, in the first step, aims to research the belief of Mahdism (Mahdaviat) in Islam and especially in the Twelver Shi’ism, and to peruse other fields of study related to it; such as the challenging ideas of Mahdism, the history and geography of the city of Samarra and other places attributed to the Twelfth Imam of Shi’ism, the seminary of Samarra and its effects on Shi’ism, the literature of this field of Shi’ism, and the like. The second step is to deal with other intellectual and historical characteristics of that religion and to provide admissible researches in the scholarly tradition of Islamic studies.
Our general goals are as follows:
- Writing books and articles.
- Writing bibliographical works and catalogues of manuscripts and printed books.
- Translating scholarly works into Farsi and English.
- Revival of unprinted manuscripts or those books that need reprinting.
- Compiling of document collections.
Ernst Herzfeld’s design of the window in the cellar of Samarra (between 1907 and 1913 AD)
(The origin of the logo of the Samarra Institute for Shia Studies)
The logo of the Samarra Institute for Shia Studies is derived from a design by the German archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld, depicting a wooden window in the cellar of Samarra (believed by Shiites to be the place of worship for the tenth to twelfth Imams). This design dates back to the period between 1907 and 1913 AD (1285 to 1291 SH and 1324 to 1331 AH).
The Abbasid Caliph, Ahmad al-Nasir li-Din Allah (reign: 575 to 622 AH), ordered the renovation of the cellar in Samarra in the year 606 AH, and installed a window made of teak wood on its platform, upon which was inscribed:
بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم. قل لا أسألکم علیه أجراً إلا المودة فی القربی و من یقترف حسنة نزد له فیها حسناً إن الله غفور شکور. هذا ما أمر بعمله سیّدنا و مولانا الإمام المفترض الطاعة علی جمیع الأنام، أبوالعباس أحمد الناصر لدین الله، أمیر المؤمنین و خلیفة رب العالمین، الذی طبق البلاد إحسانه و عدله و عم البلاد رأفته و فضله ـ قرّب الله أوامره الشریفة باستمرار النجح و النشر و ناطها بالتأیید و النصر و جعل لأیامه المخلدة حداً لا یکبو جواده و لآرائه الممجدة سعداً لا یخبو زناده فی عز تخضع له الأقدار فیطیعه عواصیها و ملک خشع له الملک فیملکه نواصیها ـ بتولی معد بن الحسین بن معد الموسوی الذی یرجو الحیاة فی أیامه المخلدة و یتمنی إنفاق عمره فی الدعاء لدولته المؤبدة ـ استجاب الله أدعیته و بلّغه فی أیامه الشریفة أمنیته ـ من سنة ست و ستمائة و حسبنا الله و نعم الوکیل و صلی الله علی سیّدنا خاتم النبیین و علی آله الطاهرین و عترته و سلّم تسلیماً.
And what was inscribed on the wooden walls inside, behind that window, were the names of the twelve Imams of the Prophet of Islam’s household, referring to the Twelfth Imam as “Al-Qa’im bi’l-Haqq” (The One Who Arises with the Truth):
بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم. محمّد رسول الله، أمیرالمؤمنین علی ولی الله، فاطمة، الحسن بن علی، الحسین بن علی، علی بن الحسین، محمّد بن علی، جعفر بن محمّد، موسی بن جعفر، علی بن موسی، محمّد بن علی، علی بن محمّد، الحسن بن علی، القائم بالحق ـ علیهم السلام. هذا عمل علی بن محمّد ولی آل محمّد ـ رحمه الله.
Parts of the wooden walls inside the cellar of Samarra bear the names of
the Imams from the family of the Prophet of Islam,
including the Twelfth Imam of the Shia (Al-Qa’im bi’l-Haqq)
(Bab al-Ghayba in Samarra, Baghdad, Government Printing Office, 1938, Image No. 12)
Based on this, the Shia jurist and hadith scholar, Mirza Husayn Nuri Tabarsi, in his book Kashf al-Astar ‘an Wajh al-Gha’ib ‘an al-Absar (A Response to a Sunni Challenge to the Shia Belief in Mahdism), has listed that Sunni Caliph as the nineteenth person among forty well-known Sunni adherents who believed in the birth and spiritual imamate or mahdism of “Muhammad ibn al-Hassan al-Askari”.
Fazlullah bin Ruzbihan Khunji and the Abbasid Caliph, Ahmad al-Nasir li-Din Allah,
among the Twelver Sunnis, in the manuscript version of
the book Kashf al-Astar ‘an Wajh al-Gha’ib ‘an al-Absar
written by its author, Mirza Husayn Nuri Tabarsi (Najaf, Ayatollah Hakim Library, No. 1334)
This window was seriously damaged during the first assault on the holy shrine of Samarra on February 23, 2006 (3 Esfand 1384 SH: 25 Muharram 1427 AH), when the cellar of Samarra was bombed in an explosion that occurred before the bombing of the main shrine, but it was not completely destroyed.
The exterior view of the window of the cellar of Samarra
(constructed by Ahmad al-Nasir li-Din Allah, 606 AH)
(Photo by Ernst Herzfeld, between 1911 and 1913 AD)
