The effect of Neyshabur’s social environment on writing Shaykh Saduq’s Amali

Context affects the author and his writing. Consideration of this effect on Amali books has been less studied. Amali are hadith-historical books that are not compiled by a Muḥaddith. Therefore, environmental factors such as context are effective in selection, summarization and emphasis on its topics. Due to the special position of Shaykh Saduq among Shiite Amali are hadith-historical books that are not compiled by a Muḥaddith, travels, and various topics of his Amali, such this approach could have significant consequences. The method of selection and presenting narrations in Amali book is different from other works of Shaykh Saduq. Amali has been propounded in the second half of the fourth century AH in connection with general audiences of Neyshabur city. Neyshabur had a special religious context in those days. Due to the premise of this study about the effect of context on the author and the work, the main question of the article is what effect has the social environment of Neyshabur on writing Saduq Amali’s book? Results of this study show that Saduq has cleverly selected and quoted some hadith-historical narrations in holding Amali’s meetings in Neyshabur. The presence of Sufis in selecting narratives with story forms, the presence of the majority of Sunnis and Karramiyya in not quoting challenging narrations, and growing of Shiism had influenced in selecting narrations aiming to consolidate Imāmiyya’s verbal beliefs. Also, highlighting the position of Imam Ali (AS) as the common point of the Imāmiyya and Zaydiyya in particular and all religions in general has been influential in Shaykh Saduq’s Amali.