Al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā’s Responses to Theological Questions posed by Abū Yaʿlā Sallār [Sālār] b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Daylamī (d. 448/1057): A Critical Edition

Among the responsa collections by al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā that still remain to be edited are the Jawābāt al-masāʾil al-Sallāriyya, which consist of responsa to eight questions most of which revolve around issues related to the subtleties of kalām.

On the basis of the two earliest witnesses of this text, MS Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Petermann II [Pm.] 169 and MS Mashhad, Āstān-i quds 1448, an edition has been prepared.

The scholarly investigation of the doctrinal thought of the Imāmī scholar al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā Abū l-Qāsim ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn al-Mūsawī (“ʿAlam al-Hudā,” b.355/967, d. 436/1044) has progressed significantly over the course of the twenty-first century, resulting from the publication of a number of important, hitherto mostly unknown works of his, specifically in the field of kalām. These include Muḥammad Riḍā Anṣārī Qummī’s edition of the single extant manuscript of al-Murtaḍā’s al-Mulakhkhaṣ fī uṣūl al-dīn (Ms Tehran, Majlis 86070) (Tehran 1381/2002), a comprehensive theological summa which remained incomplete and which found its continuation in al-Murtaḍā’s al-Dhakhīra ilā ʿilm al-kalām (ed. Aḥmad al-Ḥusaynī, Qum 1411[/1990-91]). Taken together, these two works constitute the most comprehensive theological summa of Bahshamite theology that has been preserved and is available in publication.1 In 2001, Wifqān Khuḍayr Muḥsin al-Kaʿbī published a collection of al-Murtaḍā’s responsa under the title Masāʾil al-Murtaḍā that is preserved in a compilation of which there are two witnesses in Najaf. Of importance was also the publication of al- Murtaḍā’s al-Mūḍiḥ ʿan jihat iʿjāz al-Qurʾān, a refutation of a section of the Kitāb al-Mughnī fī abwāb al-tawḥīd wa-l-ʿadl of ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Hamadhānī (d. 415/1025) that is also known as Kitāb al-Ṣarfa, which was likewise edited by Muḥammad Riḍā Anṣārī Qummī (Mashhad 1424[/2003-4]).2 These publications complement what was available from among al-Murtaḍā’s oeuvre before the turn of the century—in 1966, Aḥmad al-Ḥusaynī had begun to publish al-Murtaḍā’s collected epistles, which eventually came out in four volumes (Rasāʾil al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā, Qum 1405[/1984-85]), followed in 1990-91 by Aḥmad al-Ḥusaynī’s afore-mentioned edition of al-Murtaḍā’s Kitāb al-Dhakhīra. Another important work that became available during the second half of the twentieth century was al-Murtaḍā’s Ghurar al-fawāʾid wa-durar al-qalāʾid, also known as Amālī al-Murtaḍā. In 1954, Muḥammad Abū l-Faḍl……

Bibliographic Information

Title:  Al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā’s Responses to Theological Questions posed by Abū Yaʿlā Sallār [Sālār] b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Daylamī (d. 448/1057): A Critical Edition

Author(s): Hassan Ansari & Sabine Schmidtke

Published in:  Shii Studies Review 2 (2018)

 Language: English

Length: 53 Pages

Al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā’s Responses to Theological Questions posed by Abū Yaʿlā Sallār