Two namesakes called  Amr and a Twelver Shi a hadith

Two of the hadith transmitters in the second/eighth century are namesakes: ‘Amr b. Khālid Wāsiṭī, known as “Abu Khālid Wāsiṭī” and ‘Amr b. Thābit b. Hurmuz, known as “‘Amr b. Abi ’l-Miqdām”. There is not an agreement among the Imāmī Rijālī experts about the intellectual inclination of these two transmitters. Relying on historical indications the present article attempts to discover the intellectual (and denominational) inclination of these two people. One of important criteria that is applied for this purpose is considering the content of traditions transmitted by these two people. It is concluded, by applying this criterion, that Abu Khālid belongs to the Jārūdiyyah denomination and Ibn Abi ’l-Miqdām – contrary to his father who was a follower of the Batarī sect (a branch of Zaidi school) – was with a high degree of probability an Imāmī (Twelver Shi‘a). This article then indicates that in one of the traditions denoting the fact that the Imams are twelve in number, ‘Amr b. Khālid was mistakenly substituted for ‘Amr b. Thābit (Ibn Abi ’l-Miqdām).