On 12th – 13th February 2024, the Department of Hadith and History at Al-Mahdi Institute held its inaugural conference entitled ‘Compiling a Tradition: The History and Development of the Early Imāmī Hadith Corpora.’
The conference was attended by a selection of academic researchers from various universities and academic centers in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Germany, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and other countries.
The proceedings of the conference began with a brief opening speech by the conference convener, Dr Haidar Hobballah, in which he spoke about the importance of studying the early period of Imami Hadith, highlighting the lack of attention that has been devoted to it.
In the first session of the conference Hossam Ouf (University of Tübingen) discussed the concept of authenticity and reliability of hadith between Sunnis and Shiites from the 2nd to the 5th century AH, making a number of comparisons and tracing the evolution of this concept in the two different contexts.
Haidar Hobballah (Al-Mahdi Institute) then spoke about the phenomenon of the transfer of the hadith corpora from Kufa to Qom in the 3rd century AH, and the figures that participated in this transfer, shedding light on the efforts of Ibrāhīm b. Hāshim al-Qummī and how the school of Qum dealt with the hadith al-Qummī brought from Kufa.
In the first of two panels devoted to an examination of early Imāmī sources of Hadith, Liyakat Takim (McMaster University) spoke about the book Baṣāʾir ad-darajāt by al-Ṣaffār in terms of its content, authenticity, its influence on Shiʿi doctrine and the attribution of the book to al-Ṣaffār. Mohammed Ghandehari (University of Religions and Denominations, Qom) spoke about Kitāb Sulaym b. Qays al-Hilālī. He carried out a historical analysis aimed at attempting to uncover the true personality of Sulaym b. Qays al-Hilālī, suggesting that it may be a reference to Sulaymān b. Qays al-Yashkūrī.
The third panel saw Bekir Kuzudişli (Istanbul University) speak about the transmission of hadiths from the Shiʿi Imams which were presented in the same form but by different figures. In this paper, he attempted to uncover the reason for the repetition of the same hadith with multiple narrators and Imams. He suggested that the reason for this occurrence may arise from an Imāmī ideological justification to authenticate the attribution of a hadith said by one Imam to another Imam. Fatima Zaraket (Princeton University) presented an analysis of early Imāmī views on the preservation of knowledge.
The final session of the first day included Ali Riza Rizek’s paper on al-Ḥusayn b. Saʿīd al-Ahwāzī, assessing his career, history, writings, and the movement of hadith transmission through him from Kufa to Qum, and the subsequent movement of hadith from Qum back to Iraq through his students. He highlighted to an Iraqi-Qum route followed by a return route of hadith from Qum to Iraq, with al-Ahwāzī being the central link. Ahmad Snober (İstanbul 29 Mayıs University/Madarik Institute) analysed the reports of Abū Hāshim al-Jaʿfarī in terms of their historical consistency. He highlighted historical gaps in the reports of al-Jaʿfarī which were used as a case to make larger claims about the Imāmī hadith corpora.
The second day began with the second panel on early Imāmī sources of hadith. Ali Aghaei (University of Paderborn) analysed the content of Ṣaḥīfat al-Riḍā drawing on the parallels that could be found from it in wider Shiʿi and Sunni literature. Hamid Bagheri (University of Tehran) attempted to recover the hadith of Abū Rāfiʿ’s Kitāb al-sunan wa-l-aḥkām wa-l-qaḍaya. He analysed the content and introduction of what is known as the Kitāb of Muḥammad b. Qays along with what is attributed to Abū Rāfiʿ and presented evidence proving that the Kitāb on the issues of the Imam ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib is the same as the Book of Abū Rāfiʿ from the 1st century AH.
The penultimate panel of the day saw Mushegh Asatryan (University of Calgary) speak about the ʿAbbāsid culture of debate and Imāmī hadith. He compared the pattern of debates found in Imami hadith with those prevalent in the ʿAbbāsid era, highlighting similarities and elements of convergence. He analysed the nature of ʿAbbāsid-era debates and the intellectual and literary culture carried out by such debates. George Warner (University of Exeter) assessed collection of Imami hadith on Faṭima al-Zahrāʾ in an attempt to discover the nature of moral constructs and practical wisdom present in these texts.
The final panel of the conference included Khalil Andani (Augustana College) who spoke about an unusual set of hadiths in the Imāmī corpora which he argued suggested that the number of Imams was thirteen and not twelve. Attempting to discover the origins of such beliefs, Andani highlighted parallels found in Ismaili literature. Finally, Gurdofarid Miskinzoda (Institute of Ismaili Studies) spoke about about the influence of early Shiʿi hadith collections on the formulation of the doctrine of Imāma and its eventual crystallisation by the 5th/11th century. She examined the reason for the transformation of Imāmī hadith in the era of the occultation of the Twelfth Imam into jurisprudential hadith, and why the Four Books were considered fundamental despite being jurisprudential books, with the exception of al-Kulaynī’s al-Kāfī, arguing that the Imāmīs focused their efforts on compensating for the Imam’s absence by emphasising ritual and devotional acts.
In addition to the presenters, the conference benefited from the presence of other specialists in the field from around the world who contributed greatly to the discussions both during the Q&A sessions and beyond these. In his closing remarks, Haidar Hobballah remarked that he hoped this was a step in the right direction of increased attention on the Imāmī hadith corpora in academic research.
The proceedings of the conference will be published in an edited volume with AMI Press.
Read the report of this conference written by Adam Ramadhan, published in the Shii Studies Review here.
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