Kitāb Akhbār al-Qāʾim by ʿAllān al-Kulaynī al-Rāzī: A Source for Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-Kulaynī in Compiling al-Kāfī

Abstract

ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. Abān al-Kulaynī al-Rāzī, known as ʿAllān al-Kulaynī, was among the Imāmī narrators of the era of the Minor Occultation (260/874 to 329/940–941). Among the early Imāmī biographical scholars only al-Najāshī (d. 450/1058) provided his biographical account and explicitly affirmed his reliability. He has been identified as the maternal uncle of Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-Kulaynī, and many narrations from him are quoted in al-Kāfī, a considerable portion appearing in Kitāb al-ḥujja. According to a well-known view among Imāmī scholars he collected the narrations of his book from earlier ḥadīth collections — raising the question of which book was his written source. This article evaluates that hypothesis by collecting and analysing the narrations concerned.