Criticism of  Āshūrā -related narrations of Abu l-Faraj Iṣfahānī's Maqātil al-Ṭālibiyyīn

Maqtal al-Husayn (A.S) available within the book Maqātil al-Ṭālibiyyīn compiled by Abu ’l-Faraj Iṣfahānī is among the surviving early maqātil (martyrdom accounts) that have not remained secured against the distortions on the subject of ‘Āshūrā’, in a way that it makes us be suspicious about certain matters associated with the Event of ‘Āshūrā’. Comparing the maqtal (martyrdom account) of Iṣfahānī with the maqtal related by Abu Mikhnaf available within Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī one can find similarities in both resources. Abu ’l-Faraj’s narration is a combination of the narration of such hadith transmitters as Abu Mikhnaf, ‘Ammar al-Duhnī, and Jābir al-Ju‘fī. Therefore, his narration is a paraphrase (and not a verbatim report). For this reason, a double carefulness is required when one faces with narrations that seem to be paraphrases recorded in narrative historical books. In certain cases this maqtal contradicts indisputable events and or historical accounts. In some cases (in this book) the high status of the Infallible Imams (A.S) or their families were blemished and this account has become a base for citation by Shi‘a scholars in later centuries.