The Attitude of a Critic Accused of Being Nāsibī Towards Shī‘ite-Inclined Narrators: al-Jūzjānī and His Ahwāl al-rijāl

In his Ahwāl al-rijāl, al-Jūzjānī determined the reliabity of the narrators based on their theological views. This attitude distinguished him from other critics who wrote works in the du‘afā literature. It has been frequently repeated in both classical and modern works that al-Jūzjānī had a prejudice against the Kūfan narrators. In this article, al-Jūzjānī’s criticisms about the Kūfan narrators compared with the opinions of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Yahya ibn Ma‘īn and Ibn ‘Adī. In addition, these narrators were also researched from Shī‘ite sources. Thus, an attempt was made to determine whether al-Jūzjānī harbored any prejudice against the Kūfan Shī‘ite -inclined narrators. It has been observed that al-Jūzjānī’s evaluations differed significantly from the three Sunnī critics. On the other hand, it has been determined that 91% of the narrators criticised by him are found in Shī‘ī sources and 66% of them are considered reliable or Imāmī. This demonstrates that al-Jūzjānī was successful in determining whether a narrator had adopted Shī‘ite views and whether he had connections with the early Shī‘ite circles.