نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسنده
استادیار، گروه تاریخ اسلام، دانشگاه ادیان و مذاهب، قم، ایران
چکیده
کلیدواژهها
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسنده [English]
The Imams’ letters are among the most important legacies of Imāmī Shiʿism, and their study is significant from various perspectives. Although some scholars have collected these letters, their different dimensions have not yet been thoroughly analyzed. A proper examination of these letters depends first on identifying their sources, and then on studying their chains of transmission and textual content. This article, employing a descriptive method and drawing upon a range of early works, investigates the sources of Imam Hassan al-ʿAskarī’s letters. It seeks to answer two key questions on which sources and works
from the past to the present have transmitted the letters; and what are the reliability, characteristics, and typologies of these sources, and in which centuries are these letters most frequently reflected. Imam al-ʿAskarī (PBUH), due to the particular conditions of his time, was summoned from Medina to Iraq along with his father Imam al-Hādī (PBUH) in 234 A.H, under compulsion and surveillance in Sāmarrāʾ, the ʿAbbāsid capital (132–656 A.H). Following the martyrdom of his noble father in 254 A.H, his Imamate—lasting only six years—began at the age of twenty-two. Until his martyrdom in 260 A.H, Imam
al-ʿAskarī (PBUH) lived under the governance of three ʿAbbāsid caliphs. In addition to the crucial task of preparing the ground for the occultation of his son, Imam al-Mahdī (PBUH), he also considered the doctrinal and social needs of the community. Given the restrictions imposed on him, his main means of communication with his followers was through the letters. Despite the brevity of his Imamate, 130 letters in seven thematic areas—tawḥīd (monotheism), imamate, miracles and extraordinary reports, jurisprudence, supplication, exhortations, and overstatement—have been transmitted in various sources. In Makātīb
al-Aʾimma, Aḥmadī Miyānjī reported 138 letters attributed to Imam al-ʿAskarī (PBUH); however, in the author’s view, nine of these do not qualify as letters, and one contains two separate letters; so, 130 letters are totally accurate. The majority of these letters appear in ḥadīth collections, while others are preserved in works of history and biography, ethics, and rijāl. This study, based on volume six of Makātīb al-Aʾimma by Ayatollah Aḥmadī Miyānjī (d. 1379 A.H), categorizes the sources of the letters into seven types: ḥadīth, sīrah, history,virtues and merits, rijāl, supplications and devotional practices, jurisprudence, and ethics. For the purpose of criticizing each source, the authors and their works are examined in light of biographical dictionaries (kutub al-rijāl) and other relevant literature in order to determine the reliability of each letter. The frequency of letters cited in various sources is also presented in tabular form. Additionally, other related works are surveyed, with attention to chronology, in order to ensure that the repeated letters are not counted twice. This analysis demonstrates that the transmitting the sources of these letters are, for the most part, reliable and worthy of scholarly reference. The majority of the letters are found in the Shiʿi ḥadīth and historical-sīrah sources of the fourth-century. About 71 letters are reported in the works of the fourth-century, 66 of them are preserved in three of the Four Books of Shiʿism (al-Kāfī, Tahdhīb, and Man Lā Yaḥḍar al-Faqīh), which greatly enhances their authenticity and significance. The additional nine letters are cited from other writings of the compilers of the Four Books. Some letters appear in later sources such as Biḥār al-Anwār and Madīnat al-Maʿājiz, which are of lower rank in terms of reliability. A single report is found in Hidāyat al-Kubrā by Hussain ibn Ḥamdān Khaṣībī; if this work is attributed to his earlier, pre-exaggeration phase, its authenticity is not in doubt. Eight letters are transmitted in Ithbāt al-Waṣiya and Dalāʾil al-Imāmah, though the disputed authorship of these two works requires greater caution in evaluating their reliability. In conclusion, this study finds that the majority of the letters attributed to Imam Hassan al-ʿAskarī (PBUH) are preserved in credible sources.
کلیدواژهها [English]
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