MANY SCHOLARS dealing with Muslim apocalyptic have made the assumption that Shī‘ī apocalyptic is the most important component of it (examples have been noted in the introduction). In this chapter we will examine the relationship of Shī‘ī apocalyptic to other non-Shī‘ī Muslim apocalyptic as. whole, and try to come to some conclusions as to the relationship between the two. In addition to the scholarly material reviewed in the introduction, there have been. number of very capable Shī‘ī scholars who have examined their own messianic heritage. One would not want to lessen the importance of these books, but since they deal exclusively with the Shī‘ī manifestations of messianic beliefs, they will be reviewed here. The first book to appear was ‘Abd al-'Azīz Sachedina's Islamic Messianism (1981), which, despite its inaccurate name, is. major contribution to the study of Shf'f messianism, in addition to the author's other articles on the field. The principal difficulty with this volume is the fact that it is an attempt to cover too much ground; if he had called his book A History of the Occultation of the Twelfth Imam (as Hussain did), it would have been far more accurate. Sachcdina sees Shī‘ī apocalyptic as an independent subject, free from any contact with Sunnī apocalyptic (though to be absolutely fair to him, so do all other Shī‘ī scholars).