Note 580 — Chapter VI

معصوم means “defended, preserved (by God); innocent, an infant;” it is the particular name given by the Imamíahs to the twelfth Imám, Muhammed, the Askerite, who, as was related in the foregoing note 1, p. 383, was in his infancy concealed in a grot, from which he never came forth again, and is still expected. It is an ideal Imám, believed by more than one sect, and the name of Mâśum was applied to more than one individual, as will be seen hereafter.