A Report on the Revision of the Book “Al-Fosul al-Mokhtarah”, in an Interview with Hojjat ol-Islam Hamid Ahmadi
· Would you please start with an explanation about Sayyid Murtada’s book, Al-Fosul al-Mokhtarah, and its distinctive features among his other works?
Sayyid Murtada 'Alam al-Huda lived in ۳۵۵ to ۴۳۱ (After Hijrah) and Al-Fosul al-Mokhtaarah min al-‘Oyoun wa al-Mahaasin is one of his books. The book can be considered as the most distinctive one among his works. The distinctive feature is that the discussions in the book are not his own views for the most part; rather as the name of the book suggests, its content is a selection from “Al-‘Oyoun wa al-Mahaasin”, a book written by his teacher, Sheikh Mufid (۳۳۸-۴۱۳ After Hijrah).
Although in some cases, Sayid Murtada has added some points of himself to complete his teacher’s views, most part of the materials of the book are the views of his teacher, Sheikh Mufid.
The book, which is a selection from his teacher’s book, was written by Sayyid Murtada in his youth, when he had not achieved maturity in his thoughts, yet. Apparently, the book was ordered to be written by one of Sayyid Murtada’s acquaintances to be studied during a journey.
The method of discussions and most of the principles included in this book are seriously different from Sayyid Murtada’s own way of discussion, which can be found in his other works. Sayyid Murtada’s way of argumentation is based on his principles of reasoning: he did not accept the validity of traditions; furthermore, he appealed to consensus as much as possible, besides other ways of reasoning in discussions.
Furthermore, in the discussions in his works with his opponents he considered some of the criteria for the proximity of denominations, and he often avoided from excommunication, vilification, imprecation, etc. He has also criticized some extremist issues formed among the Shiite sects, or at least has left them aside from among the common traditions, and has tried to analyze them through reasoning, logic, the Qur’an and consensus.
The mentioned points have not been considered in Sheikh Mufid discussions, especially in this book, which is a selection from “Al-‘Oyoun wa al-Mahaasin”. As a whole, this book is different from Sayyid Murtada’s other works in terms of the mentioned points.
Therefore, it could possibly be said that this work is more related to the congress of Sheikh Mufid, rather than the congress of Sayyid Murtada. However, the research about this work and revising it was programmed (and assigned to be accomplished by me) for the international congress of Sayyid Murtada since the book is known as one of Sayyid Murtada’s works; and one can sometimes find Sayyid Murtada’s own ideas in the work; in addition, the process of the evolution of Sayyid Murtada’s thoughts can especially be realized through a comparison of this book with his other works.
· How is the procedure of doing the research and revising the book? What points have been considered in revising the work in the framework of the works of the congress of Sayyid Murtada?
This work, like Sayyid Murtada’s other works, needed to be revised seriously again. A new revision was needed since the previous revisions had been published in limited numbers and the principles of the scientific revision had not been considered in them adequately. This can be noticed for the researchers in the field through a little comparison. In most of those versions, either the copy which has been revised is not known, or it is a copy which does not enjoy priority. Furthermore, there are abundant errors and problems found in the text –either in terms of language or the principles of scientific revision. Besides, almost nothing has been done in the previous revisions in terms of providing references for the citations and providing explanations for the difficult terms and expressions in the text. The previous versions of revisions are more a reproduction of the original copy, rather than a work of research and revision. Most importantly, in most of the copies made of this work, a selection of the narrations of Sheikh Mufid has also been included at the end, which is not found in the previous copies of this text.
In the process of the new research and revision of this work, we have referred to some researches not included in the work itself and also some researches concerning its content, which will be included in the introduction to the work. Aside from the mentioned point, the first step to be done was to identify all the available copies. From among ۴۷ identified copies in the libraries in Iran and abroad, the scientific priorities of each copy were studied based on the principles of the copy for the scientific research, and eventually we provided ۱۳ copies from among them.
Next from among these ۱۳ copies, the five more important ones were compared and contrasted adequately with the original copy (published in Beirut: Mo’assisat al-Tarikh al-‘Arabiah) and the major and influential variations were extracted and recorded according to the specific principles common in the scientific revisions followed in Dar al-Hadith.
Fortunately, in most of the cases where the text of the original copy was erroneous or preferable, the ancient available copies, helped to decide about the judgment in revising the text. In preparing the revised text, the preferred copy or the copy with more manuscript supports has been selected, and the other copies along with the text of the original copy have been mentioned in the footnote.
Furthermore, terms or expressions in the text which were in need of clarification have been explained based on creditable dictionaries and resources developed by annotators in similar cases. Besides, all the references from among the previous sources or the tradition communities after the period of Sayyid Murtada have been provided for the citations in the text, as much as possible.
One of the most important things done in the process of the new revision of the book is a study of the various characters and people mentioned in the text. They are mostly individuals about whom there are not systematic information in the books and rijaal and taraajim sources, and we needed to do extensive research to introduce them.
In the introduction of the revision, there is a detailed scientific discussion concerning the attribution of the work to Sayyid Murtada and a study on the possibility of attributing in to Sheikh Mufid, himself.
It is necessary to mention that in the text of the book, a number of exceptional characters have been mentioned, who are in some cases never referred to in the well known Shiite and Sunnite sources. We have introduced them as much as possible through the procedure of revising this book.
· Please provide a brief explanation about the manuscript copies used for this revision.
The following copies have been used for the revision of this book:
۱. The copy of the library of Ayatollah Mar’ashi Najafi in Qom, with the call number ۱/۱۳۹۴۰ written in ۹۵۰ (After Hijrah), copied from another copy dating back to ۶۰۱ (After Hijrah) [Fihrist ۳۵/۴۶۹].
۲. The copy in the faculty of literature of Tehran, call number ۵۱, written in the ۱۰th century, compared in ۱۰۹۲ (After Hijrah) [Fihrist p. ۷۸۷].
۳. The copy in the library of the Islamic Parliament of Iran, call number ۱۱۳۸۷, written in the ۹th and ۱۰th centuries [Fihrist ۲/۳۰۳].
۴. The copy of the library of Ayatollah Mar’ashi Najafi in Qom, with the call number ۱/۱۵۸۰۳ written in ۱۲۷۶ (After Hijrah), copied from another copy dating back to early ۹th century and compared in ۱۰۹۰ (After Hijrah) [Fihrist ۴۰/۱۷۴].
۵. The copy in the library of the Islamic Parliament of Iran, call number ۱/۹۷۳۸, written in ۱۳۲۳ (After Hijrah) from a copy dating back to ۴۶۶ (After Hijrah [۳۱/۷۳].
Furthermore, about eight more copies were chosen and provided according to their priority, and they were referred to whenever necessary.
Of course, there are not adequate manuscript copies for this work and unfortunately no other ancient copies were found beside the mentioned copies.
It is also necessary to mention that a number of the parts of this book have been provided in Bihaar ol-Anwaar by Allameh Majlisi. This reveals that he had access to a copy, which, based on the comparisons, seems to have been a rather reliable one. Therefore in such cases, the text of Bihar has been cited and in preferable cases it has been referred to.
The revision of this book started about early ۲۰۱۴ and presently about ۶۰ percent of the work has been fulfilled. It is predicted that it will be completed up to the end of the current year, and the result will be published in about ۷۵۰ pages and presented to the world of Islam along with other works of Sayyid Murtada.
