-Sheikh Abbas Qumi's Historiography in Nafas al-Mahmūm fi Muṣibat Sayidina al-Ḥusayn al-Maḍlūm

Nafas al-Mahmūm, is written about the martyrdom of Husayn bin ʿAli  and  has met with the favor and attention of the Shiite community more than other similar writings. In composing this book, Sheikh Abbas Qumi (d. 1941) used the method of hadith scholars, emphasizing on isnad, and tried to write his work based on sources that he considered authentic. Al-Qumi sought to put aside the last layers from the martyrdom of al-Husayn literature, which were often added during the Qājārid era (1789-1925). However, this process does not seem to produce a single, coherent narration of the ‘ashura event. The main shortcomings of the book are:  relying on some historians and hadith scholars and referring to their sources frequently without criticizing their narrations, not identifying the primary sources of the tradition or ignoring it, lack of reports verification, lack of checking the accuracy of the reports, ignoring conflict between reports, lack of historical approach and finally, the lack of coherence in the conclusion and selection of the preferred report. It can be said that although this book keeps the reader away from the distortions of the late period, the number of different reports on each issue does not allow the reader to find out Qumi's opinion.