Abū Jaʿfar Marʿashī: The Narrator of the Commentary Attributed to Imam Hassan Al-ʿAskarī (AS)

Abū Jaʿfar Marʿashī was a narrator through whom Abū Manṣūr Ṭabrisī and Abu Sa'd Sam'ānī quoted directly. Sheikh Ṭabrisī in the book al-'Iḥtijāj cited the exegetical Hadiths attributed to Imam Hassan ʿAskarī (AS) from Abū Jaʿfar Marʿashī. Although the author of al-'Iḥtijāj quoted all Hadiths without sand, he brought those of the aforementioned commentary with their sanads, as it was unknown. Sam'ānī also introduced Abu Ja'far in his book al-‘Ansāb. However little is known about Abu Ja'far Marʿashī. Using the descriptive-analytical method, the present paper aims to go through historical and hadith documents and give at hand a possibly complete information and analysis about Abu Ja'far. Findings show that he was a famous traditionist and literary scholar among Shi'a and Sunni scholars of the time, while al-‘Ansāb, the main source which introduced him, mentioned him among Shiite exaggerators (ghulāt). Seemingly, this claim was in terms of the commentary attributed to him, about which there is such a claim as well.