¹ In the canonical collections of Imāmī traditions, see al-Kulaynī, , al-Kāfī, ed. ‘al-Ghaffārī, 'Alī Akbar, Tehran, 1381/1961, V, 105–12Google Scholar; Bābūya, Ibn, K. man lā, yaḥḍuruhu 'l-faqīh, Tehran, 1367, 358Google Scholar; al-Ṭūsī, , Tahdhīb al-aḥkām, ed. al-Kharsān, Ḥasan, Najaf, 1380/1960, VI, 330–6Google Scholar. The relevant traditions from these and other works are systematically assembled in al-'Āmilī, al-Ḥurr, Wasā'il al-shī'a, ed. al-Shīrāzī, 'Abd al-Raḥīm, Beirut, 1391/1971, VI/54 f., 135–55Google Scholar.

² On 'Alī b. Yaqṭin's positions under al-Mahdī and al-Hādi see Sourdel, D., Le Vizirat 'Abbāside, Damascus, 1959, I, 112–14Google Scholar, 120 f. On the basis of the ambiguous text of al-Ṭabarī III, 549, Sourdel states erroneously that 'Alī b. Yaqṭīn was executed by al-Hādi as a zindīq. The one executed was, however, Yazdān b. Bādhān, secretary of 'Alī b. Yaqṭīn and of his father Yaqṭīn b. Mūsā (see Vajda, G., ‘Les zindīqs en pays d'islam au début de la période abbaside’, in RSO, XVII, 1938, 186)Google Scholar. 'Alī b. Yaqṭīn died at the age of 57 in 182/798, while Imam Mūsā was held in prison in Baghdad under Hārūn al-Rashīd (al-Nadīm, Ibn, al-Fihrist, ed. Flügel, G., Leipzig, 1871, 224Google Scholar, copied by al-Ṭūsi, , Fihrist kutub al-shi'a, ed. Sprenger, A., Calcutta, 1853–1855, 234Google Scholar; al-Najāshī, , al-Rijāl, Tchran, n.d., 209Google Scholar. Al-Kishshī (al-Kashshī, , Ikhtiyār ma'rifat al-rijāl, ed. al-Muṣṭafawi, Ḥasan, Tehran, 1348/1970, 430)Google Scholar probably erroneously gives the year 180.

'Alī b. Yaqṭīn's father Yaqṭīn b. Mūsā, a client of the Banū Asad, was one of the leading dā'īs of the 'Abbāsid revolutionary movement in Kūfa. According to Ibn al-Nadīm, he was forced to flee when the Umayyad caliph Marwān II searched for him and he reappeared after the 'Abbāsid victory to serve the caliphs from al-Saffāḥ to al-Rashīd (Ibn al-Nadīm, p. 224; al-Ṭūsī, , Fihrist, p. 234)Google Scholar. According to Abū '1-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī(al-Aghānī, Būlāq, 1285, XIII, 94)Google Scholar, he worked in Khurāsān as a weaver. Yaqṭin was sent by the caliph al-Manṣūr as a man of trust to take charge of the booty which Abū Muslim had gained in his defeat of 'Abd Allāh b. 'Alī, the caliph's uncle (Ṭab. III, 103). In 161/778 the caliph al-Mahdī put him in charge of the extensive improvements of the pilgrimage route from Baghdad to Mecca ordered by him (Ṭab. III, 486). In 167/783–4 al-Mahdī entrusted him with the task of enlarging the Mosque of Mecca (Ṭab. III, 520). After the suppression of the revolt of the 'Alid al-Ḥusayn b. 'Alī al-Fakhkhi, Yaqṭin presented the head of the rebel to the caliph al-Hādi (Ṭab. III, 567). In 178/794 Yahyā. b. Khālid b. Barmak, vizier of Hārūn al-Rashīd, sent him to Ifriqiya to persuade the rebel 'Abdawayh to return to obedience (Ṭab. III, 630). Yaqṭin died after his son 'Alī in 185/801. In spite of his prominent service to the 'Abbāsids, he was, according to Ibn al-Nadīm and al-Ṭūsī, a Shī'ite and used to carry much money to Imam Ja'far. However, according to a report quoted by al-Kulaynī and al-Kishshī (p. 435 and n. 3), Imam Ja'far cursed Yaqṭīn ‘and his offspring (wa-mā walada)’. This report should not necessarily be seen as in conflict with Ibn al-Nadīm's affirmation that he was a supporter of the Imams. It may rather reflect the ambiguity which would almost inevitably attach on occasion to the role of someone trying to maintain such a double loyalty.

³ Al-Kāfi, V, 106.

⁴ Al-Tūsī, , Tahdhīb, VI, 330Google Scholar; al-Ḥurr, , Wasā'il, VI/2, 146Google Scholar.

⁵ Al-Kāfi, V, 112; al-Ḥurr, , Wasā'il, VI/2, 139Google Scholar. Al-Kishshī (p. 433) quotes a more explicit version of the statement: ‘O 'Alī, God has friends among the friends of the oppressors (ẓalama) in order to protect His Friends through them, and you belong to them, O'Alī.’

⁶ Al-Kishshī, p. 434.

⁷ Al-Kishshī, p. 269.

⁸ Al-Kāfī, V, 110; al-Kishshī, p. 435.

⁹ Al-Kishshī, p. 434.

¹⁰ Al-Ḥurr, , Wasā'il, VI/2, 143Google Scholar. 'Alī b. Yaqṭīn is described here as the vizier of Hārūn al-Rashīd.

¹¹ Al-Kishshī, pp. 430–2.

¹² Al-Najāshī, p. 54. Al-Najāshī received the ijāza for transmitting the book in 400/1009–10 from a scholar transmitting it from the author.

¹³ Al-Najāshī, pp. 298 f.

¹⁴ The manuscript was completed in 1234/1818–19, and its contents are described by Munzawī, Aḥmad, Fihrist-i Kitābkhāna-yi Majlis-i Shūrā-yi Millī, XVI, Tehran, 1348/1970, 5–12Google Scholar. The Mas'ala fī 'l-'amal ma'a 'l-sulṭān is found on fol. 187b–189a.

¹⁵ Buzurg, Aghā, al-Dharī'a ilā taṣānīf al-shī'a, Najaf (Tehran), 1355- /1936–, XX, 398Google Scholar, under the title Mas'ala fī 'l-walāya min qibal al-sulṭān al-jā'ir wa 'l-ẓālim.

¹⁶ Muḥyī al-Dīn, 'Abd al-Razzāq, Adab al-Murtaḍā min sīralihī wa-āthārih, Baghdad, 1957, 142Google Scholar.

¹⁷ al-Dīn, Muḥyī, Adab al-Murtaḍā, pp. 131Google Scholar, 142. It is not clear whether the title of the treatise in the MS of al-Iṣfahānī is Mas'ala fī 'l-walāya ‘an al-jā’ir (or min qibal al-sulṭān al-jā'ir wa l-ẓālim as given by Aghā Buzurg) or whether this name is derived from the ijāza of al-Buṣrawi.

¹⁸ Al-Najāshī, p. 207: Mas'ala fī qatl al-sulṭān. Qatl is most likely to be read 'amal. The edition of al-Najāshī's book swarms with corruptions, and the subject of killing the ruler was not traditionally in the purview of Imāmī jurists. Āghā Buzurg also refers to al-Najāshī as mentioning the title of the treatise (Dharī'a, XX, 398: Kamā fī'l-Najāshī). It is not clear whether he had a different copy of al-Najāshī's book at his disposal containing the title Mas'ala fī 'l-walāya min qibal al-sulṭān al-jā'ir wa 'l-ẓālim or assumed the Mas'ala fī qatl al-sulṭān to refer to the treatise.

¹⁹ Buzurg, Āghā (Dharī’a, XX, 398)Google Scholar and al-Dīn, Muḥyī (Adab al-Murtaḍā, p. 149)Google Scholar both mention the date as Jum. I 415 (July–August 1024). It thus appears that the MS of al-Iṣfahānī gives the latter date, unless it was erroneously copied by Āghā Buzurg.

²⁰ On Abū 'l-Qāsim al-Maghribī see especially Sami Dahhan, introduction to his edition of al-Maghribī's, Kitāb fī'l-siyāsa, Damascus, 1948Google Scholar, and the texts relevant to his biography assembled there on pp. 85–118. To these should be added al-Najāshī, p. 55. According to al-Najāshī, al-Maghribī's mother was Fāṭima, daughter of the prominent Imāmī scholar Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm al-Nu'mānī. Busse, H. (Chalif und Grosskönig, Beirut, 1969, 235, 290)Google Scholar suggests that he had Ismā'īlī leanings and was ousted by the caliph al-Qādir from Baghdad because of Ismā'īlī activities. There does not, however, seem to be solid evidence for this assumption. Al-Maghribī had fled from Egypt after his father, uncle and two brothers had been killed by the Fāṭimid caliph al-Ḥākim and had actively instigated rebellion against al-Ḥākim in Syria.

²¹ Shahrāshūb, Ibn, Ma'ālim al-‘ulamā’, ed. Iqbāl, 'Abbās, Tehran, 1353/1934, 62Google Scholar: al-Muqni' fī 'l-ghayba ṣan'at al-wazīr lbn al-Maghribī read ṣnnafahu li 'l-wazīr Ibn al-Maghribī. al-Dīn, Muhyī, Adab al-Murtaḍā, pp. 142 fGoogle Scholar.

²² That al-Maghribī was still in office at the time of the composition of the treatise is indicated by al-Murtaḍā's use of the formula adāma 'llāhu sulṭānahū after his name. According to al-Athīr, Ibn (al-Kāmil, ed. Tornberg, C. J., Leiden, 1851–1876, IX, 235)Google Scholar, the vizierate of al-Maghribī in Baghdad lasted ten months and five days. Since his predecessor Mu'ayyad al-Mulk al-Rukh khajī was dismissed in Ramaḍān 414/Nov.–Dec. 1023 (Ibn al-Athir, IX, 233), al-Maghribī's fall and flight from Baghdad probably occurred in Rajab or Sha'bān 415/Sept.–Oct. 1024.

²³ Alṭāf, pl. of luṭf, is used here in the technical meaning in which the kalām theologians employ it to refer to incentives through which God aids man to choose freely faith and acts of obedience toward him rather than infidelity and acts of disobedience.

²⁴ This refers to the well-known reports that 'Alī inflicted the legal punishment (ḥadd) for drinking wine on the Umayyad al-Walīd b. 'Uqba during the caliphate of 'Uthmān. The law generally reserves the authority for the administration of ḥadd punishments to the imam. Al-Murtaḍā evidently wants to make the point that 'Alī in administering this punishment must have been acting by virtue of his appointment as the rightful imam by the Prophet, not by virtue of his election to the caliphate which took place only later.

²⁵ It is not clear which specific traditions al-Murtaḍā had in mind here. That the Imams had authorized the Shī'ite scholars of the law to carry out legal punishments if they were in a position to do so was affirmed by Shaykh al-Mufīd, the teacher of al-Murtaḍā, in his al-Muqni'a (al-Ḥurr, , Wasā'il, IX/1, 338)Google Scholar. Shaykh al-Ṭūsī, too, in his K. al-nihāya (Beirut, 1390/1970, 301)Google Scholar maintained that an official appointed by an unjust ruler to execute legal punishments was permitted to do so whenever he could apply the correct rules of the sharī'a. He should believe in this case he is acting with the permission of the true ruler, i.e. the Imam, and the faithful are obliged to aid him in his endeavours. The question remained, however, controversial. Muḥammad b. Idrīs al-'Ijli al-Ḥilli (d­ 598/1202) in his K. al-sarā'ir (Tehran, 1390/1970, 161)Google Scholar claimed that al-Ṭūsī's thesis was based on a single narration which could not invalidate the consensus of all Muslims that the execution of ḥudūd was a prerogative of the Imams and their authorized judges. The al-Ḥilli, Muḥaqqiq in his Sharā'i' al-Islām (ed. Maghniyya, Muḥammad Jawād, Beirut, n.d., I, 160)Google Scholar mentions both theses and indicates his preference for the view that the ḥudūd cannot be carried out in the absence of the Imam, describing it as the more circumspect (aḥwaṭ). Similar is his treatment of the question in his al-Mukhtaṣar al-nāfi' (Najaf, 1383/1964, 146)Google Scholar. The 'Allāma al-Hillī, on the other hand, upheld the contrary thesis that the Imāmī scholars of the law are permitted to carry out the legal punishments during the ghayba and must be aided in this by the believers (see Mahdī al-Ḥusaynī, Ṣādi, Sharḥ tabṣirat al-muta'allimīn, I, Najaf, 1382/1962, 300)Google Scholar.

²⁶ Traditions of the Imams enjoining obedience to the unjust ruler on the basis of taqiyya are assembled inal-Ḥurr, , Wasā'il, VI/1, 471Google Scholar f.

²⁷ Relevant statements of the Imams are quoted inal-Ḥurr, , Wasā'il, VI/2, 483Google Scholar.

²⁸ i.e. Imam Ja'far al-Ṣādiq.

²⁹ Kaffārat al-'amal ma'a 'l-sulṭdn qaḍā' ḥawā'ij al-ikhwān. The statement is quoted in Babūya, Ibn, K. man lā yaḥḍuruhu 'l-faqīh, p. 358Google Scholar.

³⁰ See Brunschvig, R., ‘Les Uṣsûl al-Fiqh Imâmites à leur stade ancien’, in Le Shîisme Imâmite, ed. Fahd, T., Paris, 1970, 210Google Scholar; W. Madelung, 'Imamism and Mu'tazilite Theology', ibid., pp. 25 f.

³¹ See for instance the discussion in al-Jabbār, 'Abd, al-Mughnī, XVII, ed. al-Saqqā, Muṣṭafa, Cairo, 1385/1965, 156Google Scholar.

³² Al-Ṭūsī, , al-Nihāya, 356Google Scholar f.

³³ For the meaning of the latter phrase compare al-Nihāya, p. 303, where it is qualified with min al-ṣadaqāti wa 'l-akhmāsi wa-ghayri dhālik, i.e. who delivers the alms taxes and the fifths to their proper recipients under Imāmī law.

³⁴ The Muḥaqqiq al-Ḥillī, whose treatment of the matter in his Sharā'i' al-lslām (I, 164) is based on al-Ṭūsī's, places acceptance under these circumstances in the category of permissible though reprehensible (jā'iz 'alā karāhiya).

³⁵ I, P. 164.

³⁶ p. 146.

³⁷ See the quotation of al-Najafī's al-Jawāhir (Jawāhir al-kalām fī sharḥ sharā'i' al-Islām) in Sādiq al-Ḥusaynī al-Rūḥānī, Muḥammad, Fiqh al-Ṣādiq, second ed., Qumm, 1389/1969, XI, 375Google Scholar, according to which al-Ḥilli in his al-Sarā'ir held acceptance to be obligatory. This must refer to Ibn Idrīs al-Ḥilli, K. al-sarā'ir al-ḥāwī fī taḥrīr al-fatāwī. The latter, however, fully supports the doctrine of al-Ṭūsī, (al-sarā'ir, p. 203)Google Scholar.

³⁸ On Murtaḍā al-Anṣārī, see Algar, H., Religion and State in Iran 1785–1906, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969, 162Google Scholar ff.; Löschner, H., Die dogmatischen Grundlagen des šīitischen Rechts, Köln, 1971, 34Google Scholar.

³⁹ Fiqh al-Ṣādiq, XI, 377.