Abd Allah ibn Saba'

[2] According to Sunni and Shia tradition, Abd Allah ibn Saba' was a Yemenite Jew from the Arab Himyar tribe who converted to Islam during Uthman's reign.

[7] According to traditional Sunni and Shia sources, Abd Allah ibn Saba' was a Yemenite Jewish convert to Islam.

[1][2][8] According to Leone Caetani, Ibn Saba in origin was a purely political supporter of Ali, "around whom later generations imagined a religious conspiracy like that of the Abbasids".

[4] Concerning Ibn Saba' religious beliefs, particularly that of the Saba'iyya, W. F. Tucker noted that they are more complete and better recorded in sources devoted to heresiography.

[5] Matti Musa points out that the Saba'iyya as a ghulat sect did in fact exist, noting that their views have been seriously considered by both Sunni and Shia heresiographers.

[6] Hodgson states that there are contradictions in what religious views is ascribed to him and his followers, but we can assume that he was a founder or a hero of one or more sects called Sabaʾiyya, which exalted the position of Ali.

[10] Citing the example of Ibn Saba', Lewis states that there is tendency in Islamic sources to attribute subversive and extremist doctrines to Jewish origins, conspiracy or instigation.

W. F. Tucker, after examining the different arguments, concludes that "Whatever is the case regarding his ethnic identity, it is quite probable that Ibn Saba' was a Yemenite, and that he came from a Jewish milieu".

[16] Israel Friedlander, Julius Wellhausen, and most particularly, Leone Caetani, assert that Sayf fabricated the episode about killing of Uthman to "exonerate the people of Medina from participation in the caliph's murder"[6] and as Friedlander adds finding a "scapegoat for the troubles surrounding Uthman" and any complicity in the strife resulting in the death of third caliph.

"They aver that the movement for supporting Ali as heir and testamentary trustee of the prophet did not exist in the time of Uthman as Ibn Saba' had alleged.

[5] Tucker and Landau-Tasseron point out that although Sayf may have been an unscrupulous hadith collector, this should not detract from his general reliability as a transmitter of historical information (akhbārī).

[5] Tucker also states that even if Sayf's accounts of Ibn Saba' was a fabrication, he appears to be only the transmitter of the story and not the ultimate source.

He adds that accusations of bias could equally be leveled at other akhbārīs contemporary to Sayf, including the Shi'a historian Abu Mikhnaf.

[5] Moreover, Fuat Sezgin, Albrecht Noth, and Martin Hinds have also challenged Wellhausen's views and placed Sayf on an equal footing with other traditionalists.

During the time of Ali ibn Abi Taleb, he introduced a number of concepts that later were ascribed to more extreme factions of Shia Islam, or ghulat.

According to these traditions, the exaltation of Ali, his divine appointment by the Islamic prophet Muhammad as a successor, the concept of occultation (ghayba) and return (rajʿa) were first formulated and expressed by Ibn Sabaʾ and his followers (the Sabaʾiyya).

Thus he burnt him (i.e. his corpse after killing him[24] ) with fire and said: "Satan had taken him into his whim, he used to come to him and to induce these (thoughts) in him".After narrating the traditions of Shia Imams which say that Abd Allah ibn Saba' was a cursed person who believed that Ali is God, about him, Rijal al-Kashshi says: Some knowledgeable people have stated that Abd Allah ibn Saba' was a Jew who had accepted Islam and showed great devotion for Ali (peace be upon him).

[34] Ni'matullah al-Jazaa'iree, another of Shi'ite famous scholars from his book al-Anwaar al-Nu'maaniyyah (2/234): Abd Allah ibn Saba' said to Ali (peace be upon him), "You are the Worshipped One in truth."

And it is said that he was a Jew who accepted Islam and whilst upon his Judaism he used to say about Joshua bin Noon and about Moses the likes of what he said about Ali.The first part of the saying of Ni'matullah al-Jazaa'iree is the Shia belief about Abd Allah ibn Saba' which is based on the authentic traditions.

This book was a refutation of those who denied the existence of Abd Allah ibn Saba' giving the excuse of "false narrations".

Modern Shia historians often cite a number of Sunni scholars who considered Sayf ibn Umar as unreliable on matters of prophetic hadith.

[44] However, some modern historians have pointed out that this view of Sayf should be limited to his hadith scholarship, and thus it does not detract from his general reliability as a transmitter of historical information.