The Additions to Kāmil al-Zīyārāt And the Question of its Ascribing to Ibn Qūlavayh

It has been reported that, Ibn Qūlavayh (d. 367 AH), the Shiite scholar from Baghdad wrote a book entitled Kāmil al-Zīyārāt which included the traditions concerning the advantages and ceremonials of visiting Shiite Imams. The present study aims at reviewing the well-known copy of this book and the tracing its real author. The purpose of the essay is to support the theory which was first presented by the contemporary Hadith expert, Muḥammad Bāqir Behbūdī, according to whom the author of the book is believed to be one of the Shiite scholars and Ibn Qūlavayh’s disciple namely Ḥuseyn b. Aḥmad ibn Mughayrih Būshanjī, a Hadith expert who has been described by Shiite Rijāl experts as weak and unreliable and whose reports are not accepted. Based on Bihbūdī’s view, he wrote the book by considering the Ibn Qūlavayh’s work as the main source and added other Hadiths to it as well. To evaluate this theory, first the Bihbūdī’s evidences will be analyzed and then by reviewing the book itself, we will try to identify more textual signs for such claim.