Imam Ali (AS)’s Political Role in the Eras of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the First Three Caliphs; Retrieving al-Ya’qubi’s Sources and Verifying the Hadiths Transmitted by Him

History of al-Ya’qubi by Ahmad ibn Abi Ya’qubi (d. 897 AD) is a general history that is composed with the combined method, which means that through eliminating the chain of transmission of hadiths and combining the content of hadiths on an event, it has provided a unified coherent account of the event. Al-Yaqubi’s elimination of the chain of transmission, disagreement of some accounts in his book with other hadiths from its other known contemporary sources (Waqidi’s al-Maghazi, Waqidi’s al-Ridda, ibn Hisham’s al-Sira al-Nabawiyya, ibn Sa’d’s al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, ibn Qutayba’s al-Imama-wa-l-Siyasa, etc.), and, particularly, presentation by him of rare and Shiite-like accounts make it necessary to retrieve and verify the hadiths transmitted by him. The research questions are as follows: What are al-Ya’qubi’s sources? Do they have sufficient validity and reliability? And, finally, what was his criterion for choosing the hadiths? According to the research findings, although the hadiths transmitted by al-Ya’qubi on Imam Ali (AS)’s deputization in Medina during the Expedition of Tabuk, assignment of Imam Ali (AS) to collecting zakat and jizya from the Christian community of Najran, the Farewell Haj and Event of Ghadir, Imam Ali’s declining to pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr (except for one hadith), Umar’s negotiations with Imam Ali (AS) over determining the beginning of the Islamic calendar as well as over financial affairs, selection of the third caliph (except for two hadiths), and Uthman’s negotiations with Imam Ali (AS) over jurisprudential matters are in agreement with other sources and reliable, in some places, under the influence of Shiite trends or for some other obscure reasons, al-Ya’qubi’s work has presented different and rare accounts whose source is not clear.