Talk:Ali al-Sajjad/GA1

GA Review

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Nominator: Albertatiran (talk · contribs) 06:44, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

Reviewer: Cplakidas (talk · contribs) 11:36, 3 August 2024 (UTC)

Will take this on during the next few days. Constantine ✍ 11:36, 3 August 2024 (UTC)

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable, as shown by a source spot-check.

   a (reference section): b (inline citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism):

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free content have non-free use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

A few days turned into a month, but I finally found some time. The article is as usual of high quality and well researched and referenced. Some comments follow:

Lede

• Suggest linking quiescent to political quietism in Islam (I know it is imperfect, but better than nothing, and the technical term will be unclear to the average reader otherwise), and (optional) Revolt of Zayd ibn Ali where it is mentioned

Life

• The sections here are extremely brief. Is there a particular reason (e,g, reflecting traditional historiography)? Otherwise I suggest merging some of them (e.h. 'In Karbala' and 'In Kufa' could be 'Karbala and aftermath', 'Journey to Damascus' can easily be merged with 'In Damascus', etc). 'Aftermath of Karbala' now also comes several sections after 'In Karbala', which is at least a bit confusing at first glance when trying to gain an overview. Would suggest renaming it to 'Later life' or similar, and have the next sections be subsections of that.
• Shia Muslims annually celebrate the link should be to Shia Islam rather than the generic Muslims
• great-grandson of Muhammad link and contextualize Muhammad as the Islamic prophet
• some believe some what? Modern historians? Shia theologians? Medieval sources?
• Suggest adding regnal years for Yazdegerd III (using Template:reign), and possibly some context, in that he was overthrown as a result of the Muslim conquest of Persia?
• with Persians 'with the Persians', or even 'with the Persian royal dynasty'?
• his mother was the daughter of Yazdegerd III...some Shia sources, Shahrbanu, the daughter of Yazdegerd III is there a reason the name is not given in the first mention? Are some Shia sources suggesting another identity for the shah's daughter? AFAICT Shahrbanu is only attested in Shia sources and no other source claims that Yazdegerd had daughters. This should be added.
• Add regnal years for Yazid I and the other Umayyad caliphs at first mention.
• After killing Husayn and his male relatives and supporters, the Umayyad troops looted his camp and found al-Sajjad lying deathly ill in one of the tents. lacks a citation
• the women unveiled link to hijab?
• displayed from "village to village" if this is a quote, it is a very short one (i.e. it is trivial and can be removed), but at any rate it should be attributed.
• Similar accounts are offered by the historians...Such views are expressed by other authors it should be noted that all of these are modern historians, who interpret extremely biased medieval sources. So all these opinions should be treated with due caution. I would even recommend (although this is not required for a GA-level review) to note which medieval sources represent which side of the story, and are respectively relied on by modern historians. Some contextualization might also be in order, e.g. 'Yazid's reaction to, and culpability in, events in Karbala have been disputed ever since' or similar.
• In particular, the Sunni historian Ibn Kathir...An alternative account is presented by the Shia scholar Tabarsi (d. 1153) and by the early historian Abu Mikhnaf (d. c. 773) Having the medieval historians follow after the modern ones feels weird. As above, I would expect medieval sources to be analyzed first, and modern scholars to come after.
• Link great mosque in Damascus
• The captives were eventually freed is there any indication of the approximate date?
• He kept aloof from politics link to Political quietism in Islam?
• Main article: Battle of al-Harra would rather suggest to have the entire Second Fitna as the reference here, with a corresponding section header (e.g. 'Role in the Second Fitna')
• Tawwabin's revolt 'Tawwabin revolt' or 'Revolt of the Tawwabin'

Death

• Provide a link to Demolition of al-Baqi
• Give some context about the Wahhabis (who they are, what they represent, their ties to the Saudi regime)
• Shia sources add that the destitute in Medina discovered, after his death, that al-Sajjad was the benefactor who regularly brought them food at night, while covering his face to preserve his anonymity This might better be placed in the 'Character' section, where it is alluded to.

Imamate

• Husayn had designated al-Sajjad Link to Nass (Islam)?
• who revolted under the auspices of Ibn al-Hanafiyyah 'auspices' may be unclear or misleading, since his connection with Mukhtar is unclear.
• Ibn al-Hanafiyyah occurs a few times, suggest standardizing to 'Ibn al-Hanafiyya'
• the Zubayrid Caliphate since this is not a proper historiographic name, 'the Zubayrid caliphate'; I would even suggest 'the Zubayrid counter-caliphate' or 'Zubayr's counter-caliphate'. Ditto for the mention further down.
• Yet some Shia figures add 'contemporary' for clarity.
• But perhaps Ibn al-Hanafiyya had secret designs 'On the other hand, perhaps Ibn al-Hanafiyya had secret designs'
• Kasaniyya was a Shia sect that traced the imamate through Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya and his descendants suggest merging with previous section, and rephrasing a bit, e.g. 'Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya's followers among the Shia became known as the Kaysaniyya, who continued to trace the imamate through his descendants' or similar, because the transition is somewhat abrupt.
• when Ibn al-Hanafiyya died add year of death.
• Most Zaydis, by contrast, do not count the quiescent al-Sajjad among their imams some more context is needed here, to make clear that Zaydi imamate is not hereditary, and must be politically activist. Alternatively, move this part to the later section where Zaydis are introduced and their doctrine mentioned.
• majority views to the uninitiated, this is not clear; at least something like 'majority views that were not espoused by the early Shia' or similar is necessary for clarity.
• condemn the first two caliphs: Abu Bakr and Umar leaves the reader asking why they should be condemned; I would recommend moving most of whom view Abu Bakr and Umar as usurpers of Ali ibn Abi Talib's right to the caliphate immediately after that.
• qualified for leadership link to Imamate in Zaydi doctrine?
• Some duplicate links, please remove them.

Titles and epithets

• Gloss kunya
• Abu al-Ḥasan, Abu al-Ḥusayn render 'H' according to the simple transliteration used throughout
• A gloss for Dhu al-Thafenat?

Character

• among Sunni Muslims as the Sunni-Shia divide is not quite there yet, perhaps 'non-Shia' or 'majoritarian' Muslims'? At the very least 'proto-Sunni'.
• How much of this description comes from 'neutral' sources (e.g. al-Tabari) and how much comes from Shia sources?

Family

• Apart from Muhammad, are there any of his children, or more remote offspring, that are noteworthy? E.g. the son for whom the Mausoleum of Abdullah ibn Ali Zayn al-Abidin was built?

Works

• often regarded as authentic by whom?
• Would add the link to Supplication of Abu Hamza al-Thumali in the main body of the text, rather than in the 'See also' section.

Sources

• The years given for the EI2 articles are incorrect; EI2's last volume was published in 2004. Cf. Template:Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, which I strongly recommend to use (otherwise something from Vol. I, i.e. 1960, is erroneously presented as being up-to-date, and EI2 is shown as being later than EI3 articles).

Infoboxes

• In the top infobox, Hasan al-Muthana is listed as his successor in Zaydism, in the succession box in the bottom, it is Zayd ibn Ali. I would suggest that both are wrong, as the article makes clear that the Zaydis didn't regard him as an imam at all.

That's it for a first pass. After the points above are dealt with, I will do a second read-through and a source review. Constantine ✍ 14:49, 7 September 2024 (UTC)