@ARTICLE{Najafian, author = {Najafian, Leila and }, title = {Historiography of Imami Shia Religion at the Eve of the Major Occultation Case Study: Consolidation the Theory of Presence and Occultation of Imam Zaman (A.J) }, volume = {7}, number = {27}, abstract ={Since the occultation until now, Ulama and thinkers of Imami religion had disabused and consolidated the theory of presence and occultation of Imam Zaman (A.J). Meanwhile, four books of al-Ghaybah by Nomani, Kamal al-din by Saduq, Ershad by Mofid and al-Ghaybah by Tusi which had been written during the first century after the eve of the major occultation had important role in consolidation of this theory. This research had studied efforts which had been made for transforming the theory of presence and occultation of Imam Zaman (A.J) into a social notion according to aforementioned sources and based on the Discourse Analysis theory and professional terms of Laklaw and Moffett discourse theory. According to this study, after one century writers of these books had replaced the empty signifier of occultation as the central signifier of Imami Shia’ discourse and were gradually able to create a social notion from the thoery of Imam Zaman’ (A.J) presence and occultation. Therefore, they had effective role in resolving the crisis in Imami Shia discourse and today’s believe of Imami Shia towards the occultation of their 12th Imam and their recognition of the concept of “waiting”. * Assistant Professor, History Department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (najafian@ferdowsi.um.ac.ir) Received in 3 May 2016, Accepted in 8 August 2016. }, URL = {http://chistorys.ir/article-1-711-en.html}, eprint = {http://chistorys.ir/article-1-711-en.pdf}, journal = {Cultural History Studies}, doi = {}, year = {2016} }