Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Samarri

The date of birth of Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Samarri is not known. al-Samarri called al-Sammari because was living in al-Sammar or al-Saymar, one of the areas of Basra. He was from a prominent Shia family of Basra. Many members of his family were the agents of previous Imams of Shia. Before Minor Occultation he was the deputy of Ali al-Hadi, the tenth Imam of Shia and Hasan al-Askari the eleventh Imam of Shia.[5]

When Husayn ibn Ruh al-Nawbakhti, the third deputy, was about to die, he named al-Samari as the next and fourth deputy of twelfth Imam of Shia.[6] Because of his family and his good record in the time of two previous Shia Imams amongst Shias, he faced no problem in his being accepted as the deputy by the Shia community.[7][8] Due to unprecedented crackdown of Banu Abbas against Shias in the period of the deputy of Muhammad al-Sammari, he wasn't very active and had intentionally limited his interaction with his agents amongst Shias.[4][8]

On the sixth day after receiving the letter, Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Samarri died (939 AD) and he was buried in Baghdad near the current grave of Sheikh Kulayni. Before his death, they asked him about the next deputy and he responded: "I don't have permission to introduce anyone". Following his death, the Major Occultation began.[4]

Six days before his death, he received a Tawqee, the letters that were signed by the twelfth Imam, Hujjat-Allah al-Mahdi, in which he was notified that there would be no deputy after him.

"In the name of Allah, the all-Merciful, the especially-Merciful.

O Ali Ibn Muhammad al-Samarri! May Allah increase the reward of your brothers concerning you (i.e. your demise)! Death will come to you within the next six days. So you complete your works and do not nominate any person after you. The sequence of special deputies will come to an end and the Major Occultation will commence with your demise.

Now the reappearance will occur only with the permission of Allah, after a prolonged period and after the hearts of people are hardened. And such a period will emerge on my Shias when people will claim that they have met with me. Whoever makes such a claim before the advent of the Sufyani and the call from the sky is a liar, an impostor. And there is no strength nor power except from Allah, the High, the Great."

[4][8]