Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

"The death of Imam Jafar Sadik in 148/765 marked the beginning of the decentralization of Shi'ite religious authority. The Ithna Asharites or the Twelvers, the Shi'ite sect supported Musa Kazim as their next Imam after Imam Jafar Sadik. Musa Kazim was born in 128/745 on the road between Mecca and Medina. His mother was a Berbar slave, called Hamida. Throughout the whole of his life, Musa was faced with hostility from the Abbasids. The cause of his arrest and murder is said to have been the result of the plotting of caliph Harun ar-Rashid's vizir, Yahya bin Khalid.