Āl Aʿyan were a Shiʿi family famous for their transmission of traditions, who were prominent from the end of the 1st/7th century until the 4th/10th century. Their ancestry is traced back to Aʿyan b. Sunsun. Through various Shiʿi dynasties they provided long service to the scientific community of their age. The family originally came from Kūfa and were mostly settled there, although in later times some of them moved elsewhere. In Kūfa they lived in an exclusive district where there was a mosque vi…