The Biography of Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm al-Nuʿmānī

Abstract

Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm al-Nuʿmānī, al-Kātib, (d. before 360/971) is a venerable Imāmī traditionist for his celebrated work the Kitāb al-ghayba—a compilation of nearly 445 traditions to demonstrate the occultation of the twelfth Imam and his parousia in the last days of history. Although some monographical studies have been done on this author and his work, the biographical questions about the Imāmī community that he came from, the first places from where he started his Ḥadīth study, and the connection between his being kātib by profession and his learning traditions remained unanswered. The present article is an endeavor to present a more complete biography of al-Nuʿmānī. It consists of an examination of the socioreligious milieu of his hometown al-Nuʿmāniyya, the different places that he visited to his teachers, some fragmentary information about his grandson Abū l-Qāsim al-Maghribī, his stay in Aleppo, his works and pupils, and a more plausible date of his death in Aleppo.