Zaydī view of Jaʿfar b. ʿAlī

Q : What is the Zaydī view of Jaʿfar b. ʿAlī the brother of Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī?

A : Nothing negative about him has been established for us.

We reject the "Liar" epithet, and this is clear from Imām Abū Ṭālib al-Hārūnī ع, who connects the use of this epithet to the Twelvers, as it was used when he rejected the birth of a son to his brother al-ʿAskarī ع.

We believe that his testimony on the matter is reasonable and was vindicated.
Overall, his memory is an honorable one, and later sources refer to him as al-Zakī (the Pure One). Someof his descendants became Imāms in Yemen, and one such descendant wrote a brief passage on his general virtues and piety, saying: "May the Pleasure of Allāh be upon him (Riḍwān Allāh Taʿālā ʿalayh)."

Jaʿfar’s son, al-Muḥsin, is mentioned in an addendum in one manuscript of Maqātil al-Ṭālibiyyīn as having been killed by some Bedouins, with his head sent to Baghdād. The text continues that this makes it apparent that he was killed for calling against the Sulṭān.

Allāh knows best.

- al Sarrad