The formative period of Twelver Shīʻism : Ḥadīth as discourse between Qum and Baghdad

Shows how the frictions and disparities between the different pockets of believers scattered throughout the Eastern Islamic world in the late ninth and tenth centuries, the relations between each of these and the Abbasid political institution favoured the narration of different bodies of the Imams' traditions And ConclusionCHAPTER FIVE: Al-Saffār's Basāir al-Darajāt: Theological Discourse As Encouragement; Basāir as Qummī Discourse; The Importance of Ilm and Its Possessors; The Miraculous Nature, Substance and Transmission of the Imams' Ilm; The Unique Nature of the Imams and their Shīa; The Unique Abilities of the Imams; Summary and Conclusions; CHAPTER SlX: Al-Kulaynī's al-Kāfī: The Qummī Response to Baghdadi Rationalism; Al-Kulaynī on al-Kāfī: Baghdad's Rationalist Discourse on the Edge; The Centrality of al-Aql and al-Ilm: the Repudiation of Rationalism; The Grace of al-Ilm