Khiḍr's Testimony to Twelve Imams: Transmission of Khidr-tradition from Primary Sources to the Later Hadith Collections

One of the ancient evidences posed by Imāmī scholars, concerning the number of Imams, is the testimony of Khiḍr to the twelve Imams with the names of all 12 Imams, which is narrated by Kulaynī and some other traditionalists on the authority of Ahmad b. Muḥammad b. Khalid al-Barqī (274 or 180 AH). Al-Barqī has narrated another version of the hadith in an extant Chapter (al-ʿilal) of his famous book, al-Maḥāsin, in which full names of Imams are not mentioned. This variation has casted doubt upon originality of the tradition. Through studying the chain of transmitters of the Khidr-tradition, this article aims to show that the origin of the hadith which contains full names of Imams is the book of the main narrator, Abū Hāshim al-Jaʿfarī (261 AH), from where it has been cited in later works such as al-Kāfī. Furthermore, by examining statistically all hadiths in the chapter of al- ʿilal, this study tries to find the roots behind the differences between the versions in al-Maḥāsin and other hadith collections. The study of the chains of hadiths in al-Maḥāsin shows that al-ʿilal was originally the book of al-Barqī’s father, Muḥammad b. Khālid, completed later by al-Barqī. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the textual differences, find their roots in the methods of hadith compilation of the father and his son.