A Medinese scholar in Injuid Shiraz: Shams al-Dīn al-Zarandī and his theorisation of Sunni imamophilism

This study explores how Hijazi Sunnis have strengthened the theoretical development of the Sunni veneration of the Twelve Shiʿi Imams (imamophilism) with a focus on two faḍāʾil works written by the Medinese scholar Shams al-Dīn al-Zarandī (fl. 747/1346): Naẓm Durar al-Simṭayn on ʿAlī and his close family, and Maʿārij al-Wuṣūl on the Twelve Imams. In the Naẓm , a work dedicated to the Injuid ruler of Shiraz, Abū Isḥāq (r. 1343–1357), in 747/1346, Shams al-Dīn adopted a critical stance towards another imamophilic Sunni scholar, Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Ḥammūyī (d. 722/1322), for his inclusion of unreliable traditions and justified Sunni imamophilism by excluding Shiʿi traditions and selectively mentioning famous Sunni sources. In Maʿārij al-Wuṣūl , he also denied the Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan (the twelfth imam)- Mahdī theory, which is a pivotal doctrine in Twelver Shiʿism, while considering it to be Shiʿi. These two works could be regarded not merely as a first attempt to theorise Sunni imamophilism through the rejection of certain Shiʿi doctrines but also as a by-product of a rivalry between Shams al-Dīn and the Ḥammūyī family, and between the Injuids and the Muẓaffarids. Shams al-Dīn spread imamophilism among the Shirazi population, and his views on the imams influenced later imamophilic Sunnis.