Analyzing the Sources of ibn Babewayh's Narrations from Saad Ashari in His Book of al-Imamah and al-Tabserah men al-Heyrah

Recognizing the first hadith sources has several narrative, bibliographic and historical benefits. The similarity between the chains of transmitters, the authors of the book Fehrest had to the primary sources, and the chains of transmitters of hadiths, the repetition of the narrators of the book in the hadith sources, and matching the topic of the hadiths with the title of the books are signifiers of obtaining the hadith from the written sources. In his book, al-Imamah and al-Tabserah men al-Heyrah, which is the oldest Shia source on the subject of occultation, ibn Babewayh narrated a total of 87 hadiths, 37 of which he received directly from Saad ibn Abdollah Ashari. The most probable sources used by ibn Babewayh are the books of al-Imamah and Basaer al-Darajat by Saad ibn Abdollah Ashari. He has also used other books as follows: Al-Imamah by Mohammad ibn Hosayn ibn Abi Khattab, Al-Imamah by Mohammad ibn Isa ibn Obayd, Al-Imamah by Abdollah ibn Moskan, Al-Imamah by ibn Abi Omayr, al-Malahem and Tafsir by Hasan ibn Fazzal, al-Ghaem and al-Malahem by Ali ibn Mahziyar, al-Malahem by Mohammad ibn Senan, al-Tafsir and al-Malahem by Hosayn ibn Said, the books of Mohammad ibn Ismail ibn Bazi and also the book of Ghasem ibn Mohammad