After the death of al‐Askari the Shia community was faced with the issue of who the Imam's successor was, some saying that al‐Askari left a son,
Hujjat-Allah al-Mahdi, who communicated with the Shias through the
Four Deputies. Ibn Nusayr claimed to have been intimate with the tenth and eleventh Imams, and upon hearing of the news of the hidden son attempted to claim that he was a representative of the
hidden Imam. His claim was rejected by the mainstream Shias, and Ibn Nusayr was later excommunicated by
Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Uthman, the official second deputy of the hidden Imam. ==Notes==