EBN QŪLAWAYH, ABU’L- QĀSEM JAʿFAR

 

EBN QŪLAWAYH (Qūlūya), ABU’L- QĀSEM JAʿFAR b. Moḥammad b. Jaʿfar b. Mūsāb. Qūlawayh Qomī Baḡdādī (d. Baghdad, 368/978 or 369/979), Imami traditionist and jurist, a disciple of Abū Jaʿfar Kolaynī and teacher of Shaikh Mofīd. He apparently first studied in Qom and later traveled as far as Egypt in search of traditions. He also recounted traditions from his father, who was a companion of Saʿd b. ʿAbd-Allāh Ašʿarī Qomī, from his brother ʿAlī, Abū ʿAmr Kaššī, ʿAlī b. Ḥosayn b. Mūsā b. Bābawayh, and from many others. His pupils included Ḥosayn b. ʿObayd-Allāh Ḡażāʾerī and Hārūn b. Mūsā Talʿokbarī.

Some twenty-five of his works are listed, for the most part evidently collections of Hadith concerning particular aspects of feqh (Najāšī, pp. 23-24). His well-known and only surviving work is the Kāmel al-zīārāt (ed. ʿA. Amīnī, Najaf, 1356 Š./1977; called Ketāb or Jāmeʿ al-zīārāt by Najāšī and Ṭūsī, respectively), a work of 108 chapters, recounting the favors and rewards given those who visit the tombs of the Prophet and the Imams. It was used by later authors both as a fundamental work on Shiʿite pilgrimage and as a source for biographies (Anṣārī, p. 492). He also made an index of the books that he transmitted. He is buried in Kāẓemayn close to his more famous pupil, Shaikh Mofīd.

 

Bibliography: (For cited works not given in detail, see “Short References.”)

Ḥ. Anṣārī, “Ebn-e Qūlūya” in DMBE IV, pp. 491-92. Aʿyān al-šīʿa XVI, pp. 81-87.

al-Ḏarīʿa XVII, p. 255.

Moḥammad-Bāqer Kᵛānsārī, Rawżāt al-jannāt, Tehran, 1367/1948, p. 144.

E. Kohlberg, A Medieval Muslim Scholar at Work, Leiden, 1992, p. 211, no. 253.

Aḥmad b. ʿAlī Najāšī, al-Rejāl, Tehran, 1402/1981, pp. 223-24.

Sezgin, GAS I, p. 544.

Abū Jaʿfar Moḥammad b. Ḥasan Ṭūṣī, Fehrest kotob al-Šīʿa, 3rd ed., Najaf, 1380/1960, p. 67.

Kaḥḥāla, VIII, p. 259.

(Martin McDermott)

Originally Published: December 15, 1997

Last Updated: December 6, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. VIII, Fasc. 1, p. 47