Al-Muntakhab fi Jam al-Marathi wa al-Khutab (Book)
The book Al-Muntakhab fi Jam al-Marathi wa al-Khutab is about the Battle of Karbala written by Fakhr al-Din Tarihi Najafi (died in 1085 or 1087 AH).
About the author
Fakhr al-Din Tarihi Najafi is one of the famous Shia scholars of the 11th century who has many works, among which Majma al-Bahrin is the most famous.
About the book
Al-Muntakhab, which is also called Majlis al-Tarihiyyah and Majlis al-Fakhriyyah, includes a collection of hadiths and funerals about Imam Husain and other imams (P.B.U.TH). Fakhr al-Din had three books, Kabir, Vasit, and Saghir, with the title Al-Muntakhab and it is not clear which of these three books the present book is from, but since the author passed away in 1085 or 1087 AH, so the date of the book's authorship is before the aforementioned years and also before the composition of Bihar al-Anwar (In it, it is quoted from Al-Muntakhab). This book is not dedicated to Imam Husain, but the focus is on him and he is discussed in all parts of the book. The content of book is divided into two parts, each part contains ten chapters and each chapter contains several sections. . In each section, not one issue, but several unrelated issues have been discussed. The content of each section and chapter often begins by addressing the believers and advising them to cry, mourn, and lament. Then hadiths and poems are narrated about the virtues and sufferings of Imam Husain. Some hadiths are reliable and some of them are weak.
From the content of the book, it appears that the author wrote it intending to cry the believers and encourage them to mourn. Besides, it seems that the book was written to be read in mourning assembly. In fact, Al-Muntakhab is an obituary of Imam Husain’s martyrdom, and there are few books in this style and context with this amount of irregular content. Narrow-minded scholars believe that Al-Muntakhab does not have valid content.
Mirza Muhammad Arbab Qomi says in Arbaeen Husainiyyah's book: "The Hadith of Kisa is a Mutawātir hadith (that is, a hadith which is reported numerously by different narrators and through various chains of transmission in a way that substantiates its authenticity.), but the famous Hadith of Kisa has not been quoted in authentic books in our time, and it is one of the characteristics of Sheikh Tarihi’s Al-Muntakhab, and it is not free of distortions in the text and..." Besides, in the book “LoʼLoʼ va Marjān”, Noori says: "The story of Za'far Jinni and the wedding of Qasim... one is available in Rawdat al-shuhada by Kashifi and secondly, in Tarihi’s Al-Muntakhab, which includes Mohun; unreliable stories such as burying the enemies of Abd al-Azim Hasani alive in Ray.
In “Al-Dhari'a”, while introducing the versions of Al-Muntakhab, Agha Bozorg Tehrani pointed out the differences in their content and suggests that this book has been tampered with.