Twelverism: Difference between revisions

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Twelverism is the religious-historical system through which the ancient symbolism of ~~twelve—formed~~ through calendrical, astronomical, scriptural and political ~~traditions—was~~ eventually applied to a closed succession of twelve Imams within Imāmī Shiism.

Twelverism is the religious-historical system through which the ancient symbolism of twelve — formed through calendrical, astronomical, scriptural and political traditions — was eventually applied to a closed succession of twelve Imams within Imāmī Shiism.

~~= The Number Twelve and the Historical Formation of Twelver Shiism =~~

~~''From lunar calendars and zodiacal order to twelve rulers, twelve Imams and the Hidden Imam''~~

'''Twelver Shiism''' (Arabic: ''al-Ithnā ʿAshariyya'', “the Twelver [tradition]”) is the branch of Imāmī Shiism that recognises a closed succession of twelve Imams, beginning with ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and ending with Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan, believed to have entered occultation and eventually to return as the Mahdī. From a historical-critical perspective, this system was not present in complete form at the beginning of Islam. It emerged through the convergence of several older symbolic, scriptural, apocalyptic and institutional traditions.

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== I. The remote background: lunar time before the zodiac ==

We cannot know when humans first noticed it, because the insight almost certainly predates writing. But the evidence can be divided into three levels:

Earliest plausible recognition: probably deep prehistory

The lunar cycle is extremely conspicuous:

One lunation—new moon to new moon—is about 29½ days.

The seasonal or solar year is about 365¼ days.

Twelve lunations total about 354 days.

So after counting twelve moons from one recurring seasonal marker—such as the winter solstice, spring migration or annual flooding—people would find themselves only about eleven days short of the same point the following year. This is simple enough that mobile hunter-gatherers concerned with migrations and seasonal foods could have recognised it long before agriculture or writing.

== 8000 BCE (c.): Mesolithic Twelve-Moon Lunisolar Time-Reckoner ==

Earliest substantial archaeological candidate: around

At Warren Field in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, archaeologists discovered twelve pits arranged in an arc. The excavators interpret them as representing lunar months or changing lunar phases. Crucially, the arrangement was also directed toward the midwinter-solstice sunrise, which could reset the lunar count against the seasonal year.

If that interpretation is correct, hunter-gatherers approximately 10,000 years ago already understood that:

a seasonal year contains roughly twelve moons, but the lunar count must periodically be corrected against the Sun.

The researchers call it a Mesolithic lunisolar “time-reckoner.”

Earliest completely secure written evidence: Mesopotamia

By the third millennium BCE, Mesopotamian societies unquestionably operated lunisolar calendars. They counted twelve months of 29 or 30 days, recognised that these produced only about 354 days, and occasionally inserted a thirteenth month to stop festivals and agricultural seasons drifting through the year.

So the best answer is:

Humans probably noticed the approximate twelve-moons-to-a-year relationship thousands or tens of thousands of years before writing. The earliest persuasive archaeological evidence is Warren Field, around 8000 BCE, while the earliest indisputable written evidence appears in third-millennium-BCE Mesopotamia.

=== Approximately twelve lunations in a solar year ===

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Twelverism is the religious-historical system through which the ancient symbolism of twelve—formed through calendrical, astronomical, scriptural and political traditions—was eventually applied to a closed succession of twelve Imams within Imāmī Shiism.
+Twelverism is the religious-historical system through which the ancient symbolism of twelve — formed through calendrical, astronomical, scriptural and political traditions — was eventually applied to a closed succession of twelve Imams within Imāmī Shiism.
-= The Number Twelve and the Historical Formation of Twelver Shiism =
-''From lunar calendars and zodiacal order to twelve rulers, twelve Imams and the Hidden Imam''
 '''Twelver Shiism''' (Arabic: ''al-Ithnā ʿAshariyya'', “the Twelver [tradition]”) is the branch of Imāmī Shiism that recognises a closed succession of twelve Imams, beginning with ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and ending with Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan, believed to have entered occultation and eventually to return as the Mahdī. From a historical-critical perspective, this system was not present in complete form at the beginning of Islam. It emerged through the convergence of several older symbolic, scriptural, apocalyptic and institutional traditions.
@@ Line 103: / Line 99: @@
 == I. The remote background: lunar time before the zodiac ==
+We cannot know when humans first noticed it, because the insight almost certainly predates writing. But the evidence can be divided into three levels:
+Earliest plausible recognition: probably deep prehistory
+The lunar cycle is extremely conspicuous:
+One lunation—new moon to new moon—is about 29½ days.
+The seasonal or solar year is about 365¼ days.
+Twelve lunations total about 354 days.
+So after counting twelve moons from one recurring seasonal marker—such as the winter solstice, spring migration or annual flooding—people would find themselves only about eleven days short of the same point the following year. This is simple enough that mobile hunter-gatherers concerned with migrations and seasonal foods could have recognised it long before agriculture or writing.
+== 8000 BCE (c.): Mesolithic Twelve-Moon Lunisolar Time-Reckoner ==
+Earliest substantial archaeological candidate: around
+At Warren Field in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, archaeologists discovered twelve pits arranged in an arc. The excavators interpret them as representing lunar months or changing lunar phases. Crucially, the arrangement was also directed toward the midwinter-solstice sunrise, which could reset the lunar count against the seasonal year.
+If that interpretation is correct, hunter-gatherers approximately 10,000 years ago already understood that:
+a seasonal year contains roughly twelve moons, but the lunar count must periodically be corrected against the Sun.
+The researchers call it a Mesolithic lunisolar “time-reckoner.”
+Earliest completely secure written evidence: Mesopotamia
+By the third millennium BCE, Mesopotamian societies unquestionably operated lunisolar calendars. They counted twelve months of 29 or 30 days, recognised that these produced only about 354 days, and occasionally inserted a thirteenth month to stop festivals and agricultural seasons drifting through the year.
+So the best answer is:
+Humans probably noticed the approximate twelve-moons-to-a-year relationship thousands or tens of thousands of years before writing. The earliest persuasive archaeological evidence is Warren Field, around 8000 BCE, while the earliest indisputable written evidence appears in third-millennium-BCE Mesopotamia.
 === Approximately twelve lunations in a solar year ===