Ekhtiyar Ma'refat Al-Rijal (Arabic:اختیار معرفه الرجال) is a book in the sphere of Rijal written by Shaykh Tusi. Tusi mentioned the reason of writing the book as such that there are many faults in the Kashi's Rijal book.
Contents
Author
He was born in Tus in Iran in 995 AD/385. In 1018 AD/408 A.H. His life was along with the government of Buyid dynasty. He was born according to praying of twelfth imam of shia namely Mahdi He learned significant level of Islamic sciences of that period in Tus in Khorasan. he left Tus to study in Baghdad. In 1055 AD/447 A.H Tughril-bek entered Baghdad. there he could participate in the courses of Shykh Al-Mufid as paramount teacher. Also he wrote some of his books when he was between twenty and thirty. When he was forty two he participated in the class of his master namely Shaykh Murtaza. At this time many Muslim scholars in Baghdad, both Sunni and Shiʿite were killed. The house of al-Shaikh al-Tusi was burnt down, as were his books and the works he had written in Baghdad, together with important libraries of Shi'ite books. Al-Tusi went to al-Najaf after the fall of Baghdad. He died at Najaf on the 22nd of Muharram in the year 460 A.H/2 December 1067.
characters
the book is a selected one of Kashi's Rijal. since that the book of Kasho were of many falsies then Shaykh Tusi made decision to select and rewrite it in the form of Ekhtiyar. This book contains 1115 Hadith and refer to 515 peoples including the friends of Shia Imam.