Mahdi perception of communities living in Turkey (Example of Ismailağa community)

Throughout history, mankind has made a serious effort to learn the future through the sense of curiosity inherent in their nature and to understand the subjects that he does not know. He has always been in a quest to turn his negative life into positive, to overcome difficulties and get rid of the troubles it has experienced. If he could not overcome the difficulties with his own effort, this time he produced the imaginary heroes, and he has thought up to reach the goal with their help. One of these imaginary heroes understands of expected savior. This person is imaginary heroes who will develop worsen moral structure and the deteriorating world order in the future. This understanding, which exists in almost every religion and culture, has been transformed into a belief that can be a source of hope for the oppressed masses, and can be refuge of the oppressed society. In the Islamic society, this imaginary hero comes up with his Mahdiname. In some of the hadith sources, the narratives about the Mahdi will occur in the End Times strengthened this understanding and even evolved into one of the conditions of faith in Muslim Shii tesociety. For Sunni Muslims, the Mahdi understanding is more attracted to Sufism and the Islamic communities, but it is not perceived as one of the principles of faith. In this study, we discussed the concept of the Mahdi and historical course and then focused on the sense of the Mahdi in Turkish society. Then we examined the structure, activities, resources and understanding of the Ismailağa community. Based on the sources that the community in question frequently uses, we have investigated the perception of the Mahdi and discussed whether it is appropriate for the basic Islamic understanding. We have transformed our findings into a conclusion with our own evaluations.