that it contains so many later additions and alterations may render it impossible to reconstruct the original text. Two individual passages which have been the subject of a case study have been dated to and to the late 8th or early 9th century, respectively. This book documents prophetic traditions concerning Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi. It documents that Muhammad had promised his followers about a man from the lineage of Imam Husain who would purify Islam by removing innovations, i.e. the distortion of Quranic interpretation and prophetic traditions (hadiths). The work is also one of the first to document the political divide amongst Muslims after the death of Muhammad, and how certain figures in Islam allegedly distorted prophetic traditions in order to gain power. One of the events recorded in the book is the event of Saqifah in which Abu Bakr is said to have forcefully striped the rightful leadership of Imam Ali. For instance, the book claims that Salman al-Muhammadi, Miqdad ibn Aswad, Ammar ibn Yasir, Abdullah ibn Ja'far, Abu al-Haytham ibn Tayhan, Khuzaymah ibn Thabit, and Abu Ayyub stated that Muhammad at Ghadir Khumm said, "O people, the legal power (al-Wilaya) is granted only to Ali ibn Abi Talib and the trustees from my progeny, the decedents of my brother Ali. He will be the first, and his two sons, al-Hasan and al-Husayn, will succeed him consecutively. They will not separate themselves from the Qur'an until they return to Allah." Most of the book is directly attributed to Muhammad himself. According to Modarressi, following in this the famous Shi'a Quran exegete Ahmad ibn Ali al-Najashi (born 372 after Hijri/982 CE), the alleged indication in Sulaym ibn Qays' book that there were thirteen Imams instead of the traditionally held twelve, is a later addition by an unknown fourth-century AH scholar who wanted to please his Zaydi patron, and who added Zayd ibn Ali to the list as an Imam. According to Modarressi, it was not a part of the original book and was removed in successive editions. References Bibliography External links Kitab al-Sulaym ibn Qays (English) Kitab al-Sulaym ibn Qays (Urdu) Kitab al-Sulaym ibn Qays (Arabic) (English) 690s deaths Banu 'Amir Iraqi Shia Muslims Tabi‘un Year of birth unknown Hadith scholars 7th-century Muslim scholars of Islam 7th-century jurists 7th-century Arabs Shia hadith scholars