tenth centuries more or less devote discussion to the role and qualities of imam; see, for example: {{sfn|ref=Majmūʿ Rasāʾil|Yaḥyā, Majmūʿ Rasāʾil|p=431–432}} al-Ḥādī ilā al-Ḥaqq also singled out a line of the Zaydi imams up till his time in his Kitab al-Ahkam; see:}} As a matter of fact, he hardly uses the word, not even applying it to Zayd b. Ali. Furthermore, he does not unconditionally approve any Alid revolt and seems lukewarm towards the group he refers to as Zaydis. Taken together, al-Isfahani's Shi'i conviction is better characterised as moderate love for Ali without impugning the dignity of the caliphs before him. Legacy Al-Isfahani authored a number of works, but only a few survive. Three of them are preserved through quotations: al-Qiyan ("The Singing Girls Enslaved by Men"), al-Diyarat ("The Monasteries"), and Mujarrad al-aghani (“The Abridgement of the Book of Songs”). A fragment of the Mujarrad al-aghani is found in Ibn Abi Uṣaybi'a's ʿUyun al-anba' fi tabaqat al-atibbaʾ, which quotes a poem by the caliph, al-Maʾmūn (r. 813–833), which was arranged as a song by Mutayyam. The first two have been reconstructed and published by al-ʿAtiyya, who collected and collateed the passages from later works that quote from al-Isfahani. The former, al-Qiyān, is a collection of the biographies of the enslaved singing girls. In it, al-Isfahani provided the basic information about the biographical subjects, the men who enslaved them, and their interaction with poets, notables such as caliphs, and their admirers, with illustration of their poetic and/or musical talents. The latter, al-Diyārāt, provides information related to monasteries, with the indication of their geographical locations and, sometimes, history and topographical characteristics. However, it is questionable to what extent the reconstructed editions can represent the original texts, since the passages, which quote al-Isfahani as a source for the given subject and are thus included by the editor, seldom identify the titles of the works. Four works survive in manuscripts and have been edited and published: Maqātil al-Ṭālibīyīn ("The Ṭālibid Martyrs"), Kitab al-Aghani ("The Book of the Songs"), Adab al-ghuraba ("The Etiquettes of the Strangers"), and al-Ima al-shawair ("The Enslaved Women Who Composed Poetry"). As noted above, al-Isfahani's authorship of the Adab al-ghurabaʾ is disputed. The author, whoever he may have been, mentions in the preface his sufferings from the hardship of time and vicissitude of fate, and the solace which he seeks through the stories of bygone people. Hence, he collects in