Shi‘a Rijali Views of Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn Shihab al-Zuhri

Abstract

Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri (d. 124AH/741-2CE) is a renowned hadith scholar in the Sunni tradition. His name appears in the chains of narration of over 2,200 hadith, including numerous hadith in Shi‘a sources. Nonetheless, despite his presence in Shi‘a books, Shi‘a scholars have historically disagreed about whether or not to accept al-Zuhri as a reliable narrator on account of his connections with the Umayyad ruling powers. In this paper, the views of Shi‘a biographers on al-Zuhri will be examined as well as the hadith attributed to him to offer a conclusive view on whether or not he should be accepted as a reliable narrator within the Shi‘a tradition.