Kitāb al-Ḍuʿafāʾ

By: Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad b. al-Ḥusayn al-Ghaḍā'irī

Translator: tashayyu

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al-Ḍuʿafāʾ (also known as "Rijāl Ibn al-Ghaḍāʾirī") by Aḥmad b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿUbaydullah al-Ghaḍāʾirī, a prominent scholar in the field of Rijāl, is an important work within the Shīʿī tradition of Rijāl. The book, meaning "The Weakened Ones" in Arabic, is a comprehensive biographical work focused on biographical information and information regarding the credibility of Shīʿī transmitters of Ḥadīths. Initially, there was no trace of the existence of this work between the 5th/11th and the 7th/13th centuries. Its first mention be first found by al-Sayyid Jamāl al-Dīn Ibn Ṭāwūs in the 7th/13th century. This led to controversies among scholars regarding the book's true authorship. What can definitely be said about the work though, based on the comments of individuals like al-Sayyid al-Zanjānī and al-Sayyid Muḥammad Riḍā al-Sīstānī is that the author is a Shīʿī who has access to the works of the Imāmī school and has great knowledge about the narrators of the sect. The book is alphabetically organised, providing a comprehensive perspective on numerous Shīʿī transmitters of Ḥadīths. Thus the book is a valuable source for those studying the history of Shīʿī narrators and the complex scholarly debates surrounding the reliability of Ḥadīth transmitters.