Shaykh Tusi
Encyclopedia
Shaykh Tusi full name: Abu Jafar Muhammad Ibn Hassan Tusi , known as Shaykh al-Taʾifah was a prominent Persian
scholar of the Shi'a
Twelver Islam
ic belief.
, attended his lectures and sought to honour him.
In the closing years of al-Shaikh al-Tusi's life the political situation in Baghdad and the domains of the Abbasid caliphate was in turmoil. The Saljuqids fiercely anti-Shiʿite, were gaining commanding power in the centre of the Islamic Empire at the expense of the Buyids who had always seemed tolerant to Shi'ite views. In 447 Tughril-bek the leaders of the Saljuqids entered Baghdad. At this time many of the 'ulama' in Baghdad, both Sunni and Shiʿite were killed. The house of al-Shaikh al-Tusi was burnt down, as were his books and the works he had written in Baghdad, together with important libraries of Shi'ite books. Fanaticism against the Shi'a was great.
, fundamentally Shafi'i
and to an increasing degree controlled by the G̲h̲aznawid Maḥmūd, in favour of Baghdad
, where the Shia Buwayhids were dominant. There, he studied under leading Imāmī masters including Abu ʾl-Ḥasan Ibn Abī Ḏj̲ūd, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Mūsā al-Ahwāzī, al-G̲h̲ad̓āʾirī, Ibn ʿAbdūn, and, in particular, the powerful doyen of Imāmī rationalists permeated by Muʿtazilī dialectic, al-S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Mufīd [q.v.], of whom hequickly became, in spite of his youth, one of the favourite pupils (on the rationalist evolution of Imāmism, see Amir Moezzi, 1992, 15-48). On the deathof al-Mufīd in 413/1022, his disciple al-S̲h̲arīf al-Murtad̓ā ʿAlam al-Hudā [q.v.], who had also studied under the Muʿtazilī ʿAbd al-Ḏj̲abbār [q.v.], took over the leadership of the Imāmīs of the capital. Ṭūsī subsequently became his principal disciple. Eminent scholars and former pupils of al-Mufīd, such as al-Nad̲j̲ās̲h̲ī, al-Karād̲j̲akī or Abū Yaʿlā al-Ḏj̲aʿfarī, were still living in Baghdad
, but on the death of al-Murtad̓ā in 436/1044 he was succeeded by Ṭūsī. In fact, by this time he had already amassed an impressive bibliography
and had succeeded in gaining the support of numerous Buwayhids and of the caliph
Ḳāʾim (422-67/1031-75), who appointed him to the principal chair of theology, the most prestigious of the capital. Heir to a substantial proportion of the great Imāmī libraries of the time, that of the dār al-ʿilm founded by Sābūr b. Ardas̲h̲īr (more than 100,000 works) and that of al-Murtad̓ā (almost 80,000 works), Ṭūsī composed some fifty books and his house, in the Shia quarter of Kark̲h̲ [q.v.], became for a period of more than ten years the virtual intellectual centre of Imāmism.
Under the Buwayhids, numerous religious riots had caused bloodshed in the capital. In 447-8/1056-7, ¶ after the al-Basāsīrī episode, the invasion of Bag̲h̲dād by the Sald̲j̲ūḳṬog̲h̲ri̊l and the end of the Buwayhids, the anti-Shia coalition, led by Hanbali
traditionalists, sacked the quarters of Kark̲h̲ and of Bāb al-Ṭāḳ. Al-Ṭūsī’s home and library were burnt and he himself took refuge in Najaf
. There he remained until his death, continuing to teach a limited circle of disciples, including his own son Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan who succeeded him. Also worthy of mention among his disciples were Sulaymān al-Ṣahras̲h̲tī, al-Ḥasan b. al-Ḥusayn b. Bābawayh (nephew of Ibn Bābawayh al-Ṣadūḳ), Isḥāḳb. Muḥammad al-Ḳummī (grandson of al-Ṣadūḳ), S̲h̲ahrās̲h̲ūb al-Māzandarānī (grandfather of the famous author of the Manāḳib ) and also al-Fattāl al-Nīsābūrī.
In his work, Ṭūsī attempts to modify the radically rationalist and pragmatic positions of al-Murtad̓ā (positions already present in embryonic form in the work of al-Mufid
): rehabilitation of the first traditionists, ilm-ul-hadith attested by a single authority so long as these are conveyed by reliable sources and conditional validity of traditions conveyed by transmitters professing “deviant” doctrines. In politics, serving an unlawful government (in this instance, the ʿAbbāsid caliphate) is in certain circumstances desirable, and collaboration with a power claiming that its authority derives from the Hidden Imām (a clear reference to the Buwayhids) can be commendable, but neither the one nor the other is ever obligatory (as was apparently advocated by al-Murtad̓ā). At the same time, Ṭūsī has constant recourse to reasoned argumentation based on id̲j̲tihād and he begins to sketch the notion of the “general representation” (al-niyāba al-ʿāmma) of the Hidden Imām entrusted to jurist-theologians who may, if the need arises, exercise the prerogatives traditionally reserved for the historical Imāms. In completing and modifying the work of al-Mufīd and of al-Murtad̓ā, Ṭūsī succeeded in endowing Imāmī law with a structure and a scope of activity practically independent of the figure of the Imām. Thus his work was to provide rationalist Imāmism, known from the following century onward as al-uṣūliyya , with solid intellectual bases, enabling it to experience a lengthy evolution which would lead ultimately to an ever-increasing assumption of power by Imāmī mud̲j̲tahids in the economic, social and political fields. The immense and lasting influence of the work of Ṭūsī earned him the honorific nickname of S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Ṭāʾifa [al-Imāmiyya] or simply al-S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ .
In his Fihrist , Ṭūsī gives a list of 43 of his own works; later he would have composed several more (Ṭihrānī, introd. to Tibyān). They are devoted to exegesis (3 titles), law (11), the foundations of law (2), ḥadīt̲h̲ (3), rid̲j̲āl (3), theology and heresiography (16), prayers and Imāmī piety (5), historiography (2), replies to the questions of disciples (3) [introd. by Wāʿiz̦-zāda toal-Ḏj̲umalwa ʾl-ʿuḳūd]. The following list is confined to the best known of these works (and the most widely available editions): al-Istibṣār and Tahd̲h̲īb al-aḥkām , ed. al-Ḵh̲arsān, Nad̲j̲af, respectively 1375-6 and1378–82, which form with the Kāfī of al-Kulaynī (329/949-1) and the Kitāb man lā yaḥd̓uruhu ʾl-faḳīh of Ibn Bābawayh al-Ṣadūḳ(381/991), the Four Canonical Books (al-kutub al-arbaʿa) of Imāmī ḥadīt̲h̲; al-Tibyān fī tafsīr al-Ḳurʾān (first great Imāmī rationalist commentary; ed. S̲h̲awḳī and ʿĀmilī, Nad̲j̲af 1376-83, 10 vols., with introd. by Āg̲h̲ā Buzurg al-Ṭihranī); Fihrist kutub al-s̲h̲īʿa (ed. Sprenger and ʿAbd Ḥaḳḳ, Calcutta 1848, repr. Mas̲h̲had 1972); Kitāb al-G̲h̲ayba (on the occultation of the Twelfth Imām, ed. Nad̲j̲af 1385); Rid̲j̲āl (revised summary of al-Kas̲h̲s̲h̲ī’s Maʿrifat al-nāḳilīn, Nad̲j̲af ¶ 1381); al-Iḳtiṣād fīmā yataʿallaḳ bi ʾl-iʿtiḳād, Beirut 1406; al-Amālī , Nad̲j̲af 1384; ʿUddat uṣūl , Nad̲j̲af 1403 (these three last works concern ḥadīt̲h̲ and dogma); al-Mabsūṭ fi ʾl-fiḳh, ed. Bihbūdī, repr. Tehran 1387-8; al-Nihāya fī mud̲j̲arrad fiḳh wa ʾl-fatāwā, Beirut 1390; al-Ḏj̲umal wa ʾl-ʿuḳūd fi ʾl-ʿibādāt (with introd. and Persian tr. by Wāʿiz̦-zāda, Mas̲h̲had 1374; Miṣbāḥ al-mutahad̲j̲d̲j̲id (in two versions—al-kabīr and al-ṣag̲h̲īr—on Imāmī piety, Tehran 1398; (the two works entitled Duʿāʾ al-d̲j̲aws̲h̲an al-kabīr and al-d̲j̲aws̲h̲an al-ṣag̲h̲īr , mentioned by Hidayet Hosain in EI 1, are not al-Ṭūsī’s and are probably drawn from the Miṣbāḥof al-Kafʿamī [9th/15th century]).
He's the founder of seminary
of Najaf
.
and Al-Istibsar
. Both of these pertain to Hadiths of Islamic Jurisprudential decrees and injunctions.
3. Al-Nihayah
4. Al-Mabsut
5. Al-Khilaf
6. Iddat al-Usul
7. Al-Rijal
8. Al-Fehrist
9.Tamhid al-Usul
10. Al-Tibyan Fi Tafsir al-Quran
11. Kitab al-Ghaybah
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
scholar of the Shi'a
Shi'a Islam
Shia Islam is the second largest denomination of Islam. The followers of Shia Islam are called Shi'ites or Shias. "Shia" is the short form of the historic phrase Shīʻatu ʻAlī , meaning "followers of Ali", "faction of Ali", or "party of Ali".Like other schools of thought in Islam, Shia Islam is...
Twelver Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic belief.
Birth
Abu Jaʿfar Muhammad b. al-Hasan b. ʿAli b. al-Hasan al-Tusi was born in Tus in Iran in the year 385 of the Islamic era.Middle Years
Al-Shaikh al-Tusi grew up in Tus and began his studies there. In 408 A.H. he left Tus to study in Baghdad. There he first studied under al-Shaikh al-Mufid, who died in 413 A.H. Leadership of the Shi'ite scholars then fell to al-Sharif al-Murtada. The latter remained in this position until his death in 436 A.H. During this time al-Shaikh al-Tusi was closely associated with al-Sharif al-Murtada. His vast scholarship and learning made him a natural successor of al-Sharif al-Murtada as the leading spokesman of Shi'ite Islam. So impressive was his learning that the Abbasid caliph, al-QadirAl-Qadir
Al-Qadir was the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad from 991 to 1031. Grandson of al-Muqtadir, he was chosen in place of the deposed Caliph, at-Taʾi, his cousin. Banished from the Capital earlier, he was now recalled and appointed to the office he had long desired. He held the Caliphate for 40 years...
, attended his lectures and sought to honour him.
In the closing years of al-Shaikh al-Tusi's life the political situation in Baghdad and the domains of the Abbasid caliphate was in turmoil. The Saljuqids fiercely anti-Shiʿite, were gaining commanding power in the centre of the Islamic Empire at the expense of the Buyids who had always seemed tolerant to Shi'ite views. In 447 Tughril-bek the leaders of the Saljuqids entered Baghdad. At this time many of the 'ulama' in Baghdad, both Sunni and Shiʿite were killed. The house of al-Shaikh al-Tusi was burnt down, as were his books and the works he had written in Baghdad, together with important libraries of Shi'ite books. Fanaticism against the Shi'a was great.
Death
Al-Shaikh al-Tusi, seeing the danger of remaining in Baghdad, left and went to al-Najaf. Al-Najaf, the city where 'Ali b. Abi Talib is buried, was already a very important city in the hearts of Shiʾ ʿʿite Muslims. However, it was al-Shaikh al-Tusi's arrival which was to give that city the impetus to become the leading centre of Shi'ite scholarship. This is a role, which it has maintained down to the present day. Al-Shaikh al-Tusi died in al-Najaf on the 22nd of Muharram in the year 460 A.H. (2 December 1067). His body was buried in a house there, which was made into a mosque as he had enjoined in his will. Al-Tusi was succeeded by his son al-Hasan, who was known as al-Mufid al-Thani, and was himself considered an outstanding scholar.His Ideas
After completing his preliminary studies, in 408/1017 he left KhorasanGreater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
, fundamentally Shafi'i
Shafi'i
The Shafi'i madhhab is one of the schools of fiqh, or religious law, within the Sunni branch of Islam. The Shafi'i school of fiqh is named after Imām ash-Shafi'i.-Principles:...
and to an increasing degree controlled by the G̲h̲aznawid Maḥmūd, in favour of Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, where the Shia Buwayhids were dominant. There, he studied under leading Imāmī masters including Abu ʾl-Ḥasan Ibn Abī Ḏj̲ūd, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Mūsā al-Ahwāzī, al-G̲h̲ad̓āʾirī, Ibn ʿAbdūn, and, in particular, the powerful doyen of Imāmī rationalists permeated by Muʿtazilī dialectic, al-S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Mufīd [q.v.], of whom hequickly became, in spite of his youth, one of the favourite pupils (on the rationalist evolution of Imāmism, see Amir Moezzi, 1992, 15-48). On the deathof al-Mufīd in 413/1022, his disciple al-S̲h̲arīf al-Murtad̓ā ʿAlam al-Hudā [q.v.], who had also studied under the Muʿtazilī ʿAbd al-Ḏj̲abbār [q.v.], took over the leadership of the Imāmīs of the capital. Ṭūsī subsequently became his principal disciple. Eminent scholars and former pupils of al-Mufīd, such as al-Nad̲j̲ās̲h̲ī, al-Karād̲j̲akī or Abū Yaʿlā al-Ḏj̲aʿfarī, were still living in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, but on the death of al-Murtad̓ā in 436/1044 he was succeeded by Ṭūsī. In fact, by this time he had already amassed an impressive bibliography
Bibliography
Bibliography , as a practice, is the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology...
and had succeeded in gaining the support of numerous Buwayhids and of the caliph
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
Ḳāʾim (422-67/1031-75), who appointed him to the principal chair of theology, the most prestigious of the capital. Heir to a substantial proportion of the great Imāmī libraries of the time, that of the dār al-ʿilm founded by Sābūr b. Ardas̲h̲īr (more than 100,000 works) and that of al-Murtad̓ā (almost 80,000 works), Ṭūsī composed some fifty books and his house, in the Shia quarter of Kark̲h̲ [q.v.], became for a period of more than ten years the virtual intellectual centre of Imāmism.
Under the Buwayhids, numerous religious riots had caused bloodshed in the capital. In 447-8/1056-7, ¶ after the al-Basāsīrī episode, the invasion of Bag̲h̲dād by the Sald̲j̲ūḳṬog̲h̲ri̊l and the end of the Buwayhids, the anti-Shia coalition, led by Hanbali
Hanbali
The Hanbali school is one the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. The jurisprudence school traces back to Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal but was institutionalized by his students. Hanbali jurisprudence is considered very strict and conservative, especially regarding questions of dogma...
traditionalists, sacked the quarters of Kark̲h̲ and of Bāb al-Ṭāḳ. Al-Ṭūsī’s home and library were burnt and he himself took refuge in Najaf
Najaf
Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...
. There he remained until his death, continuing to teach a limited circle of disciples, including his own son Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan who succeeded him. Also worthy of mention among his disciples were Sulaymān al-Ṣahras̲h̲tī, al-Ḥasan b. al-Ḥusayn b. Bābawayh (nephew of Ibn Bābawayh al-Ṣadūḳ), Isḥāḳb. Muḥammad al-Ḳummī (grandson of al-Ṣadūḳ), S̲h̲ahrās̲h̲ūb al-Māzandarānī (grandfather of the famous author of the Manāḳib ) and also al-Fattāl al-Nīsābūrī.
In his work, Ṭūsī attempts to modify the radically rationalist and pragmatic positions of al-Murtad̓ā (positions already present in embryonic form in the work of al-Mufid
Al-Mufid
Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Nu'man al-'Ukbari al-Baghdadi known as al-Shaykh al-Mufid and Ibn al-Mu'allim for his expertise in philosophical theology was an eminent Twelver Shi'a theologian.- Biography :...
): rehabilitation of the first traditionists, ilm-ul-hadith attested by a single authority so long as these are conveyed by reliable sources and conditional validity of traditions conveyed by transmitters professing “deviant” doctrines. In politics, serving an unlawful government (in this instance, the ʿAbbāsid caliphate) is in certain circumstances desirable, and collaboration with a power claiming that its authority derives from the Hidden Imām (a clear reference to the Buwayhids) can be commendable, but neither the one nor the other is ever obligatory (as was apparently advocated by al-Murtad̓ā). At the same time, Ṭūsī has constant recourse to reasoned argumentation based on id̲j̲tihād and he begins to sketch the notion of the “general representation” (al-niyāba al-ʿāmma) of the Hidden Imām entrusted to jurist-theologians who may, if the need arises, exercise the prerogatives traditionally reserved for the historical Imāms. In completing and modifying the work of al-Mufīd and of al-Murtad̓ā, Ṭūsī succeeded in endowing Imāmī law with a structure and a scope of activity practically independent of the figure of the Imām. Thus his work was to provide rationalist Imāmism, known from the following century onward as al-uṣūliyya , with solid intellectual bases, enabling it to experience a lengthy evolution which would lead ultimately to an ever-increasing assumption of power by Imāmī mud̲j̲tahids in the economic, social and political fields. The immense and lasting influence of the work of Ṭūsī earned him the honorific nickname of S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Ṭāʾifa [al-Imāmiyya] or simply al-S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ .
In his Fihrist , Ṭūsī gives a list of 43 of his own works; later he would have composed several more (Ṭihrānī, introd. to Tibyān). They are devoted to exegesis (3 titles), law (11), the foundations of law (2), ḥadīt̲h̲ (3), rid̲j̲āl (3), theology and heresiography (16), prayers and Imāmī piety (5), historiography (2), replies to the questions of disciples (3) [introd. by Wāʿiz̦-zāda toal-Ḏj̲umalwa ʾl-ʿuḳūd]. The following list is confined to the best known of these works (and the most widely available editions): al-Istibṣār and Tahd̲h̲īb al-aḥkām , ed. al-Ḵh̲arsān, Nad̲j̲af, respectively 1375-6 and1378–82, which form with the Kāfī of al-Kulaynī (329/949-1) and the Kitāb man lā yaḥd̓uruhu ʾl-faḳīh of Ibn Bābawayh al-Ṣadūḳ(381/991), the Four Canonical Books (al-kutub al-arbaʿa) of Imāmī ḥadīt̲h̲; al-Tibyān fī tafsīr al-Ḳurʾān (first great Imāmī rationalist commentary; ed. S̲h̲awḳī and ʿĀmilī, Nad̲j̲af 1376-83, 10 vols., with introd. by Āg̲h̲ā Buzurg al-Ṭihranī); Fihrist kutub al-s̲h̲īʿa (ed. Sprenger and ʿAbd Ḥaḳḳ, Calcutta 1848, repr. Mas̲h̲had 1972); Kitāb al-G̲h̲ayba (on the occultation of the Twelfth Imām, ed. Nad̲j̲af 1385); Rid̲j̲āl (revised summary of al-Kas̲h̲s̲h̲ī’s Maʿrifat al-nāḳilīn, Nad̲j̲af ¶ 1381); al-Iḳtiṣād fīmā yataʿallaḳ bi ʾl-iʿtiḳād, Beirut 1406; al-Amālī , Nad̲j̲af 1384; ʿUddat uṣūl , Nad̲j̲af 1403 (these three last works concern ḥadīt̲h̲ and dogma); al-Mabsūṭ fi ʾl-fiḳh, ed. Bihbūdī, repr. Tehran 1387-8; al-Nihāya fī mud̲j̲arrad fiḳh wa ʾl-fatāwā, Beirut 1390; al-Ḏj̲umal wa ʾl-ʿuḳūd fi ʾl-ʿibādāt (with introd. and Persian tr. by Wāʿiz̦-zāda, Mas̲h̲had 1374; Miṣbāḥ al-mutahad̲j̲d̲j̲id (in two versions—al-kabīr and al-ṣag̲h̲īr—on Imāmī piety, Tehran 1398; (the two works entitled Duʿāʾ al-d̲j̲aws̲h̲an al-kabīr and al-d̲j̲aws̲h̲an al-ṣag̲h̲īr , mentioned by Hidayet Hosain in EI 1, are not al-Ṭūsī’s and are probably drawn from the Miṣbāḥof al-Kafʿamī [9th/15th century]).
Among modern studies
Among modern studies, see the 102-page introd. by Ṭihrānī to al-Ṭūsī’s Tibyān, in Yād-nāma-yi S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Ṭāʾifa... Ṭūsī , Mas̲h̲had 1348/1970; R. Brunschvig, Les uṣūl al-fiqh imâmites ā leur stade ancien, in Le shiisme imâmite, Colloque de Strasbourg, Paris 1970; M. Ramyar, Al-Shaikh al-Tusi, his life and works, Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of London 1971, unpubl.; H. Löschner, Die dogmatischen Grundlagen des schiʿitischen Rechts, Erlangen-Nuremberg-Cologne 1971, index, s.n.; M.J. McDermott, The theology of al-Shaikh al-Mufīd, Beirut 1978, index; S.A. Arjomand, The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam, Chicago-London 1984, 32-65; H. Halm, Die Schia, Darmstadt 1988, 62-73, Eng. tr. Shiism, Edinburgh 1991, 56-8; E. Kohlberg, A medieval Muslim scholar at work. Ibn Ṭāwūs and his library, Leiden 1992, index; M.A. Amir-Moezzi, Le guide divin dans le shiʿisme originel, Paris 1992; idem, Remarques sur les critēres d’authenticité du hadithet l’authorité du juriste dans le shiʿisme imâmite, in SI, lxxxv (1997), 22 ff.He's the founder of seminary
Hawza
Hawza or ḥawza ʻilmiyya is a seminary of traditional Islamic school of higher learning. It is a term used mostly by the Shi'a Muslims communities to refer to a traditional Shi'a centre where clerics are trained...
of Najaf
Najaf
Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...
.
His books
Of the four authoritative resources of the Shiites, two are written by Shaykh Tusi. These two basic reference books are: Tahdhib al-AhkamTahdhib al-Ahkam
Tahdhib al-Ahkam is a hadith collection, by the famous Twelver Shi'a hadith scholar Abu Jafar Muhammad Ibn Hassan Tusi, commonly known as Shaykh Tusi...
and Al-Istibsar
Al-Istibsar
Al-Istibsar is the fourth important book of Shi'a Islamic Hadith. It was written by Abu Ja'far al-Tusi....
. Both of these pertain to Hadiths of Islamic Jurisprudential decrees and injunctions.
3. Al-Nihayah
4. Al-Mabsut
5. Al-Khilaf
6. Iddat al-Usul
7. Al-Rijal
8. Al-Fehrist
9.Tamhid al-Usul
10. Al-Tibyan Fi Tafsir al-Quran
11. Kitab al-Ghaybah
See also
- Shia Islam
- Ja'fari jurisprudenceJa'fari jurisprudenceJaʿfarī school of thought, Ja`farite School, Jaʿfarī jurisprudence or Jaʿfarī Fiqh is the school of jurisprudence of most Shi'a Muslims, derived from the name of Jaʿfar as-Ṣādiq, the 6th Shi'a Imam...
- The Four BooksThe Four BooksThe Four Books is a Twelver Shiʿa term referring to their four best known hadith collections.The books are:Shi'a Muslims use different books of ahadith than Ahl al-Sunnah's Six major Hadith collections...
- Holiest sites in Islam
- Sayyid MurtadhāSharif al-MurtazaAbu al-Qāsim ‘Alī ibn Husayn al-Sharīf al-Murtadhā was one of the greatest scholars of his time and was one of the students of Shaykh al-Mufīd...
- Sayyid Radhī
- Shaykh al-Mufīd
- Shaykh al-Tūsī
- Shaykh al-SadūqAl-Shaykh al-SaduqAl-Shaykh al-Saduq is the title given to Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Babawaih al-Qummi. He was the leading traditionist of his time and one of the most outstanding traditionists of Shi'ite Islam. He earned the title of al-Shaykh al-Saduq on account of his great learning and his reputation for...
- Muhammad al-Kulaynī
- Allāmah Majlisī
- Shaykh al-Hur al-ĀmilīShaikh al-Hur al-AamiliMuhammad bin al-Ḥassan b. Ali b. al-Ḥusayn al-ʿĀmili al-Mashghari , commonly known as Al-Ḥurr Al-ʿĀmili , was a muhaddith and a prominent Twelver Shi’a scholar of the Akhbari school of thought...
- Shaykh Nasīr ad-Dīn TūsiNasir al-Din al-TusiKhawaja Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan Ṭūsī , better known as Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī , was a Persian polymath and prolific writer: an astronomer, biologist, chemist, mathematician, philosopher, physician, physicist, scientist, theologian and Marja Taqleed...