Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A member of the largest branch of Shiism, venerating 12 imams as successors to Muhammad's religious authority and anticipating the 12th imam's eventual return from occultation as the Mahdi.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun religion, Islam The largest branch of
Shi'a Islam , believing in twelve divinely ordained leaders, known as the Twelve Imāms, and their belief that the Mahdi will be none other than the returned Twelfth Imam that disappeared and is believed by Twelvers to be in occultation.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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They chose to follow Musa's descendants as far as the twelfth imam, and became known as Twelver, or Imami Shiites.
765 2001
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In the mid-nineteenth century many Muslims who followed the "Twelver" school of the Shia branch of Islam -- the branch adhered to by the current government of Iran -- were expecting the return of the twelfth, "hidden" Imam, who was a highly revered religious figure.
Brian D. Lepard: Was the Sentencing of Iranian Bahá'í Leaders the Result of Longstanding Religious Prejudice? Brian D. Lepard 2010
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Ahmadinejad is a 'Twelver'; a cult deemed so wide of the mark that even Khomeini wanted them run out of town - well, worse, really.
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009
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According to 'Twelver' Shi'a Mulims, Imam Hujjat al-Mahd?
unknown title 2009
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In the person of a man who was “by repute arrogant, egotistical, and a fanatic proselytizer of Ithna Ashari, that is to say Twelver Shiite Islam,” a man who calls himself “Vali Allah, the vicar of God … Modesty, generosity, kindness: these were not his most renowned characteristics,” it is perhaps not fanciful to discern the outline of a prototype Khomeini.
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In the person of a man who was “by repute arrogant, egotistical, and a fanatic proselytizer of Ithna Ashari, that is to say Twelver Shiite Islam,” a man who calls himself “Vali Allah, the vicar of God … Modesty, generosity, kindness: these were not his most renowned characteristics,” it is perhaps not fanciful to discern the outline of a prototype Khomeini.
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Twelver Shi'as, who constitute the majority of Shi'as in Iran, believe that the Mahdi will join Jesus when he returns to rule the earth in peace after a period of great global unrest, war and chaos.
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I'm sure the Pakistani Taleban didn't need Benazir to be a land owning Twelver to declare her an enemy (and therefore punishable by death) but I doubt her lineage and status helped her case.
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The final journey in this world with God is a description of human psychology focusing on soteriology and eschatology and reveals most clearly the significance of Twelver Shi˜ism to his thought.
Mulla Sadra Rizvi, Sajjad 2009
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I for one, as an Iranian Twelver, have no doubt that if the Mahdi is among us, he would agree that the so-called Islamic republic has indeed constituted a great disservice to Islam.
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