Bihar al-Anwar: Difference between revisions

'''Bihar al-Anwar''' (Oceans of light) by Molla Muhammad-Baqer b. Muhammad-Taqi Majlsisi (d. 1110 or 1111/1699 or 1700) is an encyclopedic compilation in Arabic of [[Ithna Ashariyah|Imamite]] traditions (references are to the lithograph edition unless otherwise indicated). This project, which occupied Majlsisi for most of his adult life, grew from a modest work known as Fehrest Bihar al-anwar or Fehres mosannafat al-ashab, which is essen‌tially an early version of the Bihar; this work was published in 1070/1659, when Majlsisi was thirty-two. It consists of a table of contents (corresponding roughly to that of the final version) and traditions taken from ten Imamite works, six of them by Ebn Babuya . A few years later Majlsisi embarked on a great expansion, involving practically the entire corpus of Imamite [[hadith]]. In his introduction to the Bihar, the author emphasizes the crucial religious significance of this corpus. He notes that much of it is little known, having been largely forgotten, either as a result of suppression by Sunni rulers or because Imamite scholars preferred later compilations to the early works. Majlsisi describes his aim as providing the believers with the means to “humble the despicable heretics” (i.e., the Sunnis). This is to be achieved by collecting the available literature—including texts thought to be lost—and arranging its contents by subject matter.