Al-ʿAyyāshī, Abū Naṣr Muḥammad b. Masʿūd b. ʿAyyāsh al-Samarqandī (260–329/874–941), a well-known Shiʿi traditionist and Qurʾān commentator during the period of the Minor Occultation; he was said to be descended from the tribe of Tamīm (al-Ardabīlī, 2/192). Originally a Sunni, he subsequently converted to Imāmī Shiʿism (Ibn al-Nadīm, 244; Mudarris, 3/142). Drawing upon his substantial patrimony (Qummī, 642), he converted his personal residence in Samarqand into a centre for scholarship, and host…