Introduction

At the turn of the 13th century, a novel religio-political situation developed in Iraq. To reinforce his authority, the ʿAbbasid caliph al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh (r. 1180–1225) attempted to garner support from various religious groups, including Twelver Shiʿis. While he supported and enjoyed scholarly exchange with Sunni scholars, he also appointed Shiʿi wazīrs and restored the monument to the twelfth Shiʿi Imam in Samarra and the mausoleum of the seventh Imam, Mūsā al-Kāẓim, in Baghdad.

This interconfessional policy had the potential to lead to a new phase in the relationship between Iraq's rulers and the Shiʿi population. To examine this turning point, this study focuses on the Iraqi Twelver Shiʿi scholar Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥasan ibn al- Biṭrīq al-Ḥillī (d. 600 or 601/1204 or 1205) and his al-ʿUmda fī ʿuyūn ṣiḥāḥ al-akhbār fī manāqib imām al-abrār. This is a faḍāʾil (virtues) work on ʿAlī and the “twelve leaders” who ended with the Mahdī (Savior), the members clearly reminiscent of the Twelve Shiʿi Imams. By analyzing the characteristics of the ʿUmda, this study seeks to clarify why Ibn al-Biṭrīq wrote the work in the period of al-Nāṣir's interconfessional policy and how he employed his knowledge of the Imams as power to approach al- Nāṣir. Ibn al-Biṭrīq's compilation of faḍāʾil can be regarded as the response of one Iraqi Twelver Shiʿi scholar to the spread of reverence for the Imams promoted by the caliph. The completion of the ʿUmda did not represent the end of Ibn al-Biṭrīq's writing project. He subsequently wrote two other faḍāʾils, al-Mustadrak al-mukhtār fī manāqib waṣī al-mukhtār and Khaṣāʾiṣ al-waḥy al-mubīn, in which he introduced new topics and methods.