The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: "The Mahdi is from me, broad-foreheaded, aquiline-nosed, he will fill the earth with justice and fairness as it was filled with oppression and injustice, etc. . . Ibn Khaldun weakened the chains of these hadiths and narrated stories about many groups who claimed Mahdism, and said that most of them failed in their claims and were killed or fled. Then he mentioned the relationship of the idea of the Mahdi with the Sufis, saying: "The early ones among them did not delve into any of this; rather, their talk was about striving through deeds. Then came the talk of the Imamiyyah from the Shi'ites, in their preference for Ali and their belief in his Imamate and their claim of his succession. Then, after that, came the talk of the infallible Imam. And others came who claimed the return of deceased Imams through transmigration, and others claimed divinity for the Imam through a type of incarnation. This infiltrated Sufism, so they spoke of the Qutb and incarnation, as was the case with Al-Hallaj and his ilk. He says that the Sufis who lived during Ibn Khaldun's time mostly alluded to the appearance of a man who would renew the rulings of the religion and the rites of truth, and they awaited his appearance. . . And Ibn Khaldun was of the opinion that those who succeeded among the Mahdist claimants owed their success not to religious reasons, prophecies, and the like, but rather to