الارشاد و تاريخ نگاري زندگاني ائمه (ع)

Al-Irshad and the Historiography of Shiʹite Imams

Sheikh Mofidʹs Al-Irshad is an important source in the historiography of the Shiʹa and Shiʹite Imams. However, it has not been sufficiently examined intra-textually. Content analysis and text analysis of the book my open new horizons for research and scholarship on the subject. Such content analysis may, in the first place, examine the Sheikhʹs style of historiography and its relation to his theological views. Moreover, some weaknesses of the book such as its contradictions and paradoxes as well as its non-methodological gathering of historical data from various sources can be scrutinized in this way.