Kamangir (Archer)

Khamaneii meets Messiah, Medieval Islamic Propaganda

Kamangir | April 15, 2008 | Category Islam, Islamic Republic, Picture of the Day

A major source of legitimacy for the Islamic Republic is through its claims of being the connecting period between the time of the Prophet and Imams and the end of time, when the Islamic Messiah overthrows all earthly governments. To make this acceptable, Ayatollah Khameneii is commonly claimed to be a descendant of the Imams, thus his black turban. Moreover, he is often called as “the true deputy of Mahdi”.

This picture is claimed to have been taken of a propaganda item in an unknown location in Iran. The item contains Arabic sentences which refer to Mahdi, the Islamic Messiah. Here, Ayatollah Khameneii is pictured as handing over the flag of “Shia armies” [not exact translation] to the person in the right, whom is supposedly Mahdi.

Such pictures are very rare but the notion that the Islamic republic is the predecessor to Mahdi’s uprising is an essential part of the state propaganda in Iran.