Shi`a Pajoohi

Shi`a Pajoohi

The Shiite Concerns of Maytham al-Tammār’s Children According to the Hadiths They Transmitted

Document Type : Original Article

Author
mansor dadashmegad
Associate Professor, Department of History, Research Institute of Hawzeh and University, Qom, Iran
Abstract
Maytham al-Tammār, the loyal companion of Imam ʿAlī, was executed by hanging in late 60 AH at the command of ʿUbayd Allāh b. Ziyād, the governor of Kūfa, just a few days before the tragedy of Karbalā. Maytham left behind four children—Ṣāliḥ, ʿImrān, Shuʿayb, and Yaʿqūb—who became known as "the children of Maytham" (wuld Maytham). They played a key role in transmitting the hadiths of the Ahl al-Bayt, just as Maytham himself had been a devoted follower of Imam ʿAlī. The children of Maytham are counted among the companions of Imam al-Sajjād and the two Imams al-Ṣādiq and al-Bāqir, and the reports and hadiths attributed to them mainly concern the Ahl al-Bayt, especially Imam ʿAlī and the uprising of al-Mahdī. The children of Maytham hailed from Kūfa and were known as mawālī (allies) of the Banū Asad tribe, and they were followers of the Shia faith. This study will review the lives of Maytham's children and categorize and analyze the fifty-five remaining reports attributed to them to identify their primary concerns. These reports on the virtues of Imam ʿAlī, the uprising of al-Mahdī, and the characteristics of the early Shia serve both as a historical record and as expressions of the concerns of a group of early Shia who, through these hadiths, sought to reconstruct and define their own identity.
Keywords
Maytham al-Tammār
children of Maytham
Imam ʿAlī
al-Qāʾim’s uprising
Shiite hadiths. ​
Subjects
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