first Shiite scholar

[Furkan]

Is Kulayni the first Shiite scholar who has written the first shiite book or is it someone else?

In either case, what do we know about this first scholar?

-Where did he study/ from who did he learn?

-Who are his parents?

-When was he born and where? 

-How long did he live?

-in which regions did he live?

-How did he compile his book (method, where did he collect information)?

- Who are his students?

[Hani]

Kulayni is not the first Imami to write a book, many Imamis before him wrote books, and not much is known about Kulayni.


His entire biography is like two lines, barely contains any info.

[Invoker]

Kulayni is not the first Imami to write a book, many Imamis before him wrote books, and not much is known about Kulayni.


His entire biography is like two lines, barely contains any info.

What are the names of those books? Did they survive? Their authenticity?

So according to ur knowledge the man was a ghost? His teacher? His lineage?

[Furkan]

Now I got even more nervous ^^

[Hani]

He's not a "ghost" it's just that the Shia never cared who they took their religion from, so they haven't documented anything much about the life of their early scholars/narrators or their reliability etc...


And yes they do have earlier books like Basa'ir al-Darajat (Which is unreliable according to some), Tafseer al-Qummi (Also unreliable according to some), Sulaym bin Qays (Unreliable according to some as well), they have their sixteen Usoul (Who's authenticity is also not confirmed)...


A book like Qurb al-Isnad, would be considered an earlier Shia book that is considered authentic according to them.

[Furkan]

So there is no such "first scholar".

[Farid]

Perhaps the first technically reliable book (according to some) is Basa'ir Al Darajat.  I recall vaguely Ibn Al Nadeem calling it thr first Twelver book. As you guys know, the Twelver sect was established after the death of Al Hasan Al Askari, which means that the earliest possible works could have only come at the end of the third century... which happens to be the case with Basa'ir Al Darajat and Qurb Al Isnad.

[Husayn]

What about the original "Usool" books that al-Kafi is supposedly based on? Were they the "400 Usool" books or something like that?

Although I suppose they are not considered 12elver books (the OP didn't specify 12elver but "shiite").

[Rationalist]

I heard they have manuscripts of Hisham ibn Hakam.

[Furkan]

Hisham ibn Hakam was shi but not rafidi.

[Husayn]

Hisham ibn Hakam was shi but not rafidi.

I am sure he was definitely a Rafidi - he on many occasions disparages Abu Bakr (ra).

I'm not sure if there's any reports of him cursing him though. Maybe he just preferred 'Ali (ra) to Abu Bakr (ra).

[Farid]

If they had manuscripts by Hisham bin Alhakam then they would have been printed by now.