Pre-Buyid Ḥadīth Literature: The Case of al-Barqī from Qum (d. 274/888 or 280/894) in Twelve Sections

Roy Vilozny Introduction It is doubtful whether one may speak about self-awareness of the concept of Twelve Imams amongst the Imāmī Shiʿis during the lifetime of Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Barqī, that is, the second half of the 3rd/9th century, and perhaps partly due to this, this chapter will comprise twelve sections. Building the present study in twelve parts has several aims, the first of which has already been achieved in the opening statement, which is to place al-Barqī, whose works are regarded retrospectively as important Twelver sources, in an era of pre-Twelver self-consciousness – a dissonance that naturally requires further clarification. Second, of the main work by al-Barqī, Kitāb al-maḥāsin, to which the bulk of this chapter will be devoted, only eleven parts have come down to us and hence, a biographical-bibliographical section followed by additional eleven sections, devoted to each of the eleven surviving parts of al-Maḥāsin