From
http://www.israpundit.com/archives/2006/01/mahmoud_ahmadin.php :
Thanks to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, a new word has entered the political vocabulary: mahdaviat.
Not surprisingly, it's a technical religious term. Mahdaviat derives from mahdi, Arabic for "rightly-guided one," a major figure in Islamic eschatology. He is, explains the Encyclopaedia of Islam, "the restorer of religion and justice who will rule before the end of the world." When he was still mayor of Tehran in 2004, for example, Ahmadinejad appears to have secretly instructed the city council to build a grand avenue to prepare for the Mahdi. ...When addressing the United Nations in September, Ahmadinejad flummoxed his audience of world political leaders by concluding his address with a prayer for the Mahdi's appearance: "O mighty Lord, I pray to you to hasten the emergence of your last repository, the Promised One, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace."
This is not insanity. It is the rational and premeditated act of the man who would be God. Ahmadinejad is performing acts and rituals that align with Islamic prophecies and it is clearly his intention to claim the title of Mahdi for himself, whereupon millions of credulous followers will see him as the voice of God. Alternatively, he may bring forth an underling as the Mahdi, who will of course say whatever Ahmadinejad wants him to say.