مشایخ نجاشی و بررسی وثاقت عمومی آنان

Ahmad ibn Ali al-Najashi is one of the eminent experts in the science of hadith transmitters and bibliography, and his book on the transmitters of hadith is considered the most important among the four major books on the Shii science of transmission of hadith. He was the disciple of many Masters, some of whom were the most eminent scholars in the science of the transmitters of hadith and bibliography. Moreover, because he had access to many sources and books written by Shii and also Sunni scholars and had read them carefully he had gained deep knowledge in the field. The discussion on Najashi’s evaluation of his masters’ general reliability may be traced back to the time of Allamah al-Hilli, though this view was presented more seriously by Sayyid Bahr al-Ulum. Najashi committed himself to relate only from those Masters who were reliable, and this commitment can be seen in his expressions about some of his Masters. The meaning of these expressions is clear and in some cases explicit, but this assessment of reliability is limited to those Masters from who he heard. Some researchers hold that the meaning of these expressions is insufficient and imperfect and had denied the reliability of Najashi’s Masters on the ground of his commitment in relating from no weak Master without intermediaries and his insufficient knowledge on the character of a group of his Masters at a certain period of time and also the existence of the weak among his Masters. Nevertheless, considering Najashi’s close acquaintance and long companionship with his Masters it can be argued he directly or on the testimony of other Masters had sufficient knowledge of all Masters he had directly heard from and if he related from some of the weak Masters in his books of hadith transmitters, it was at the time when they were not weak.