An Enquiry into the Attribution of the Book "Al-Ḍu‘afā’" to Ibn al-Ghaḍā’irī

Document Type : Research Article

Author

• . Mahdī Jalālī,

ferdowsi

10.22067/jfiqh.2020.60940.0

Abstract

Faculty of Theology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
A
ḥmad b. Ḥusayn b. ‘Abd Allah al-Ghaḍā’irī, known as Ibn
al-Ghaḍā’rī (d. in the first half of fifth/twelfth century), has authored Al-ḍu‘afā’ wa al-Madhmūmīn known as "Rijāl-i Ibn al-Ghaḍā’irī " in order to introduce the suspected, disreputable, and lacking in authority rijāls and narrators in the realm of Shī‘a traditions. Since the seventh/fourteen century – after the appearance of this book – the Shī‘a authorities and rijāl experts have brought up different viewpoints concerning Ibn al-Ghaḍā’irī and his book Al-ḍu‘afā’. Contemporary scholars, Shaykh Aqā Buzurg-i Tehrānī and Ayatollah Khū’ī, have not approved the attribution of Al-ḍu‘afā’ to Ibn al-Ghaḍā’irī, as per his authenticity and eminence of dignity, ruling out the possibility that Ibn
al-Ghaḍā’irī might have written a book in which a great number of Shī’a rijāls and narrators have been debilitated. The writer has – in view of the opinions of the experts – first introduced different aspects of the two scholars' outlooks and then has made a critical review of them. In the end, he has found and expressed the reasons for the contradiction of the above viewpoint in Ayatollah Khū’ī's words and approach.

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