"Yūnusī”: analysis of the concept and the evidence for attribution of some Shi‘a transmitters to it

Majid Ma’aref Hasan Taromi Muhammad Meqdad Amiri

The expression "yūnusī” used for certain Shi‘a hadith transmitters in Shaykh Ṭūsī’s Kitāb al-Rijāl is a disputable and likely unclear expression in the Shi‘a Rijal literature. Certain researchers defined the expression as "tilmīdh Yūnus” (Yūnus’s pupil) and "min aṣḥāb Yūnus” (from among Yūnus’s companions or adherents) denoting either censuring the transmitter or praising him. Based on the investigations accomplished in the present research this understanding may not be right and the above definitions cannot elucidate and specify the exact meaning of the expression in question.

Scrutiny of the relationship between instances of transmitters - about whom such an expression had been applied - and Yūnus b. `Abd al-Raḥmān, and the role they played in propagating the beliefs of Yūnus shows that the expression "yūnusī” (used for a number of hadith transmitters) denotes in its correct and exact meaning that the transmitter was a distinguished personality from the aspect of adhering to a particular theological sect attributed to Yūnus that at least in the eyes of certain hadith masters of Qum signified the transmitter’s censure.

Keywords: theological viewpoints of the Shi‘a Imams’ companions, theological differences, al-jarḥ wa al-ta‘dīl (invalidation and validation), Yūnus b. `Abd al-Raḥmān, yūnusī.

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Kitāb al-Aẓilla a surviving work of the legacy of the Ghulāt of Kufa in the early AH centuries: A study on dating and recognizing the author

Hamid Baqeri

Many of the surviving works belonging to the Nuṣayryya denomination in the middle AH centuries contain countless quotations of the lost legacy of the Ghulāt (extremists) of Kufa on which one can rely as intermediate resources in retrieving the content of that legacy and consequently, the immediate understanding of the Ghulā’s teachings. Kitāb al-Aẓilla is an instance of this kind of the Ghulāt’s legacy paragraphs of which are accessible through the medium of four old texts of the Nuṣayriyya denomination. Determining the aproximate date of compilation of these