Al-Thaqib fi l-manaqib (book)

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Al-Thaqib fi l-manaqib
Bibliographical Information
Bibliographical Information
AuthorNasir al-Din b. Hamza al-Tusi
Original titleألثّاقِبُ فِی المَناقِب
LanguageArabic
SubjectMiracles of the prophets and the Infallibles (a)
PublisherMu'assisa Ansariyan


Al-Thāqib fi l-manāqib is a book written by Nasir al-Din b. Hamza al-Tusi (d. 560/1164-5), a scholar in the 6th/12th century. The book is concerned with the miracles of the prophets and the Infallibles (a).

Author

Main article: Nasir al-Din b. Hamza al-Tusi

Nasir al-Din b. Hamza al-Tusi was an Imami jurist in the 6th/12th century. Some people take him to be of the same generation as the students of al-Shaykh al-Tusi, and some people take him to be of a later period. And since he was contemporary with, or later than, al-Shaykh al-Tusi Abu Ja'far, he came to be known as "Abu Ja'far al-Thani" (Abu Ja'far II) or "Abu Ja'far al-Muta'akhkhir" (the later Abu Ja'far).

Title of the Book

Some biographers have referred to the book as Thaqib al-manaqib.[1]

Motivation for Writing

In his introduction to the book, after mentioning some virtues of the Imams (a) on the basis of Quranic verses and Hadith al-Thaqalayn, the author writes that one day he talked to a friend of his about the virtues of the Imams (a), and the attractiveness of the hadiths for that person and his mention of writings by scholars in this regard motivated him to start writing this book after appealing to istikhara.[2]

Style of Writing

The content of the book is very similar to its contemporary work, al-Khara'ij wa l-jara'ih, by al-Rawandi. The author concerns himself with miracles and extraordinary acts by the Infallibles (a), such as bringing the dead back to life, knowledge of the hidden, revealing what goes on people’s minds, and talking to animals, without pointing to their lives and biographies. The book contains odd hadiths such as the one according to which Imam al-Husayn (a) altered the genders of a man and a woman.[3]

Ibn Hamza tried to cite the hadiths with chains of transmitters, although many of them are cited with incomplete chains—only the last transmitter is mentioned in many cases.

Sources of the Book

Part of the book is derived from the following five books which are explicitly cited:

  1. Bustan al-kiram by Abu l-Hasan Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Shadhan al-Qummi (a scholar in the 4th/10th and 5th/11th centuries);
  2. Mafakhir al-Rida by Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah b. Bay' al-Shafi'i known as al-Hakim al-Nishaburi (d. 405/1014);
  3. Hilyat al-awliya’ by Hafiz Abu Na'im Ahmad b. 'Abd al-Isfahani (d. 430/1038-9);
  4. Fada'il al-Batul by Abu Musa
  5. Sayr al-a'imma by Mulini.

Of these five sources, only Hilyat al-awliya’ has survived today. The other four books are no longer available.[4]

Contents

The book is organized in 15 parts each of which containing a number of chapters:

  • The second part: miracles of prophets in 11 chapters.

Manuscripts of the Book

  1. The manuscript of the library of Sayyid Muhammad 'Ali Rawdati Isfahani.
  2. The manuscript of the Library of Astan Quds Razavi.
  3. The manuscript of the Library of Malik in Tehran.
  4. A manuscript in the Library of Ayatollah Mar'ashi Najafi in Qom with the handwriting of Shaykh 'Ali Zahid Qummi.
  5. Another manuscript in the Library of Ayatollah Mar'ashi Najafi.
  6. The manuscript in the Library of Rawda Khayri in Egypt.

Publication

The only available printed version of the book is the one repeatedly published by Mu'assisa Ansariyan in Qom as edited by Nabil Rida 'Alwan.

Notes

  1. ↑ Āqā Buzurg Tihrānī, al-Dharīʿa, vol. 5, p. 5; Kaḥḥāla, Muʿjam al-muʾallifīn, vol. 11, p. 4.
  2. ↑ Ṭūsī, al-Thāqib fī l-manāqib, introduction.
  3. ↑ Ṭūsī, al-Thāqib fī l-manāqib, p. 311.
  4. ↑ Ṭūsī, al-Thāqib fī l-manāqib, p. 17.

References

  • Āqā Buzurg Tihrānī, Muḥsin. Al-Dharīʿa ilā taṣānīf al-Shīʿa. Beirut: Dār al-Aḍwāʾ, 1403 AH.
  • Kaḥḥāla, ʿUmar Riḍā al-. Muʿjam al-muʾallifīn. Beirut: Maktabat al-Muthannā, [n.d].
  • Ṭūsī, Ibn Ḥamza al-. Al-Thāqib fī l-manāqib. Qom: Anṣārīyān, 1412 AH.
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