Qumī's Scholarship in Hadīth as Observed in Safīnat al-Bihār

Safīnat al-Bihār wa madīnat al-hikam wa al-Āthār, a precious book by Sheikh Abbās Qumī, is a comprehensive content list for the famous book, Bihar al-’Anwār al-Jāmi‘ah li al-durar al-Akhbār al-’A’immat al-’Athār by Allāmah Madjlesī. The big number of volumes Bihar al-’Anwār’ contains as well as the diverse subjects it covers, caused the hadīth narrator, Qumī, to write a content list for that book. In addition to writing a content list, he also added some notes for the better comprehension of the hadīths as well as other related narratives to support the arguments in the hadīths. The present article which applies an analytical-descriptive method, investigates Qumī’s scholarship in hadīth within two realms of context and the chain of transmission. The investigations show that Qumī took advantage of the science dealing with the transmitters (‘ilm al-rijāl), biographies (tarājum), recognition of the narrative texts through philological understanding, poems, historical and geographical information and etc.