An Analytical Bibliography of Muntakhab al-Athar fi al-Imam al-Thani Ashar

The book Muntakhab al-Athar fi al-Imam al-Thani Ashar authored by Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi, which contains Mahdavi topics, is known as one of the important sources of Mahdavi narratives due to its characteristics. The present study via a descriptive-analytical method tries to explain the author's style, why and method of authoring and analyzing the systematic style of the book, and its characteristics. The findings suggest that the author, by carefully selecting the narratives and examining their meaning, categorized them in a new way, and collected the narratives of each topic by mentioning the document from the previous sources, and then through paying attention to the spiritual frequency, he proved that the Mahdavi narratives are rooted in authentic narrative sources and they are close to the era of The Fourteen Infallibles. Therefore, this book has a theological-historical orientation. The most important features of Muntakhab al-Athar are fluent writing, order and innovative style, abundance of narrations, comprehensiveness, the author's extensive examination, considering spiritual frequency, attention to the principle of unity and proximity of religions, avoidance of repetition, jurisprudential selection of narratives and paying attention to the verses of Mahdiism which lead this book to be introduced to the scientific community as a distinguished work compared to other Mahdavi works.