Kamil al-Ziyarat

Abul-Gasem Jafar b. Mohammad b. Jafar b. Musab Qulawayh Qumi Bagdadi, known as Ibn Qulawayh was a dominant Shia traditionist and jurist. shaykh Al-Kulayni was his teacher and Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid was one of his students. Ibn Qulawayh studied at Qum and Egypt. He authored many books that the most prominent is kamil al-ziyarat.[1]

Ibn Qulawayh's father had relationship with Sad ibn Abdallah al-Qummi al-Ashari, a great Qummi traditionist. The reference of the narration attributed to al-Kulayni and Ali ibn Babawayh Qummi and al-Numani was Sad ibn Abdallah. In kamil al-ziyarat, 61 per cent of traditions had been collected from Qummis like his father in Qum and 13 per cent of them had been narrated from prominent Kufan, Muhammad b. Jafar, al-Bazzaz. This is contingent that in order to collecting traditions Ibn Qulawayh travelled to Baghdad and Egypt.[2] kamil al-ziyarat had been used for developing of some reliable sources like al-Mazar by Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid, Tahdhib al-Ahkam and al-Istibsar by Shaykh Tusi, Bihar al-Anwar, Mustadrak al-Wasa'el and Wasa'el ash-Shi'a.[3]

Kamil al-ziyarat is known as other titles such as al-ziyarat, kamal al-ziyarat but the author had considered kamil al-ziyarat for this book.[3] It contains 843 traditions that set up in 801 chapters.[2][4]

The shia nature of the kamil al-ziyarat became apparent in some specific chapters of the book. There is 52 traditions at 8-15 chapters associated to Ziyarat of Imam Ali’s grave. Also 69 per cent of tradition are related to visiting of Husayn ibn Ali’s grave.[2]

This book contains following subjects:[4]

• The charity of visiting ( Ziyārah ) the Muhammad prophet’s grave
• The charity and manner of the visiting of the grave of Ali ibn Abi Talib
• The charity and manner of the visiting of the grave of Hassan ibn Ali
• The charity and manner of the visiting of the grave of Husayn ibn Ali, the charity of Mourning for him
• The manner of the visiting of the graves of Musa al-Kadhim and Muhammad al-Jawad
• The manner of the visiting of graves of the others The Fourteen Infallibles
• The manner of the visiting of graves of the believers
• The manner of the visiting of graves of the Imamzadeh (an immediate descendant of a Shia Imam )

The following version are available:[3]

• At the library of Islamic Consultative Assembly, written by Mohammad Shafi Rahmani, in 1083 AH
• At the Central Library of Astan Quds Razavi, written by Abu al-Qasim Najafi

• List of Shi'a books
• The Four Books
• Al-Kafi
• Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih*