Tracing the origin or the beginning of Akhbarism

Akhbaris were referred by a name, only in the time of Muhammad Amin al-Astarabadi and after him.

Gleave said “The Akhbaris themselves, of course, wished to trace their history back to the earliest Shii scholars in order to claim an historical pedigree.”

The problem is that the earliest scholars

1. were never referred to as Akhbaris
2. They never claimed they were Akhbaris
3. And neither did the later Akhbari scholars shared all the juristic methodology with earlier scholars

The Akhbari movement inspired by Mullah al-Astarabadi was either concerned with reforming or rejecting Allamah Hilli’s Usul al-Fiqh.

Gleave stated that the Akhbari movement is rarely mentioned in either Safavid or Qajar historical sources.

• Safavid court histories, are largely silent on the dispute between the Akhbaris, and their opponents, the Usulis (or mujtahids, who sought to maintain al- Allåma’s juristic system).
• Scholars (identified as Akhbaris) pleading their allegiance to the Akhbari School of jurisprudence is rare in these historical sources.

The founder of Akhbarism, al-Astrabadi rejected ijtihåd and the epistemological ilm/zann distinction implied by it. In its place, he proposed a legal methodology which attempted to ensure that legal rulings could be derived with certainty from the sources.

Al-Astrabadi (in his book al-Fawa'id al-Madaniyya) proposes

• Tradition/akhbar of the Imams are historically accurate
• Traditions are sufficient as guidance for a complete adherence to the law of God

Other possible sources of knowledge (for laws), i.e., reason, philosophy, experience, inspiration are rejected.