Al-Khaṣībī

Exposure to Nusayri doctrine

Al-Khasibi's first exposure to the teachings of Ibn Nusayr was through ʿAbdallāh al-Jannān, who was a student of Muḥammad ibn Jundab, who was a student of Nusayr himself. Having been initiated into the doctrine through al-Jannān, Khasibi was now al-Jannān's "spiritual son". With the death of al-Jannān, however, al-Khasibi had no means of continuing practice and study of the doctrine. This period of dryness ended later when he encountered an ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad, who claimed to be a direct disciple of Nusayr.

In this manner, al-Khasibi received transmission from both al-Jannān and ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad, thus continuing transmission of the Nusayri doctrine. Khasibi did not necessarily believe he was representative of a splinter, rebel group of the Shias, but rather believed he held the true doctrine of the Shias.

During his reign, the founder of the Alawite sect, al-Khasibi, benefited from Sayf al-Dawla's patronage. Al-Khasibi turned Aleppo into the stable centre of his new sect, and sent preachers from there as far as Persia and Egypt with his teachings.

Hidaya al-Kubra His main theological work, Kitab al-Hidaya al-Kubra, was dedicated to his Hamdanid patron. Sayf al-Dawla's active promotion of Shi'ism began a process whereby Syria came to host a large Shia population by the 12th century.

Hidaya al-Kubra is largely a collection of Hadiths common to Ismailis and Akhbari Twelver Shi'a. It sources mostly from The Four Books and Daim al-Islam; it also shares many narrations with Bihar al-Anwar, although not sourcing from it.

The work is considered the foundational work of the 'Zahiri canon' of Alawism, which is permitted for Alawite laymen to read, unlike the 'Batini canon,' which is only for initiates and Shaykhs.