Talk:Uthman ibn Sa'id al-Asadi

Removing Sub tag

I extended this article so removed stub tag.Homiho (talk) 13:44, 17 February 2016 (UTC)

Some questions following GOCE copy-edit

Homiho In response to a request for a copy-edit at Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Requests, I have just completed a copy-edit of Uthman ibn Sa’id al-Asadi. There are still some things in the article that are unclear. I'll explain them here, and if you tell me what you intend (what you want to say), I will try to express it correctly.

1) Here is the first sentence in the lead:

Uthman ibn Sa'id al-Asadi († 873–80) was the first of the four deputies in Twelver Shia Islam, who was appointed as an agent and deputy of Muhammad al-Mahdi while he was in the minor occultation.

Were all four deputies agent and deputy of Muhammad al-Mahdi, and ibn Sa'id was just the first one, or was only ibn Sa'id appointed agent and deputy of Muhammad al-Mahdi?

2) The first two sentences of the second paragraph in Uthman ibn Sa’id al-Asadi#Kunya and title are as follows:

He is known as Samman (oil seller) because he took up selling oil to support his critical activities and duties of his deputyship from Bani Abbas to protect the Shias lives. He would cover the Shias money and trusts for Hasan al-Askari in oil barrels.

(a) The sentence is clear up to "his critical activities". However, I think you should indicate what these critical activities were. If his critical activities were "to protect the Shias lives", this phrase should be placed earlier.

(b) Who was Bani Abbas? If his "duties of his deputyship" were only, or mainly, "to protect the Shias lives", "to protect" needs to be changed to "in protecting".

(c) Does the phrase "the Shias" refer to Shias in general or to specific people? If it refers to Shias in general, the phrase needs to be changed to "Shia lives" (no "the"). If it refers to specific people, it should be made clear who they were. (Adding the word "the" makes it specific people; taking away the word "the" makes it general.)

3) The last sentence of the section Uthman ibn Sa’id al-Asadi#Before minor occultation is:

For instance, in a quotation of Ahmad ibn Ishaq Qummi, Ali al-Hadi as saying: "Amri and his son are trusted by me, so whatever he gives and tells you is from me. Listen to them and obey them."

The first part of this sentence is not clear. Who actually said the words "Amri and his son are trusted by me,..."? Why are there two names there? Who is the other one?

4) The first sentence in Uthman ibn Sa’id al-Asadi#During minor occultation is:

After the death of Muhammad al-Mahdi's father, he appointed Uthman ibn Sa'id al-Asadi as his representative, thus becoming the main link between Muhammad al-Mahdi and the Shia community.

In this sentence, who is "he"? If it's Muhammad al-Mahdi, the sentence would be clearer if "he" is changed to "al-Mahdi". Also, here it says he (al-Mahdi) appointed Uthman ibn Sa'id al-Asadi as his representative, but two sentences later it says ibn Sa'id "then became the deputy of Muhammad al-Mahdi". Is being a deputy very different from being a representative? If so, it would be best to change the second sentence from passive voice to active voice: al-Mahdi appointed ibn Sa'id his representative and then later appointed him as his deputy. If they two words are essentially the same thing, then there is no need to say it twice.

Well, that's all.  – Corinne (talk) 03:32, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

Dates?

If this is a historical personage, why are there no dates? At least Shia scholars should have some suggestions. Finn Froding (talk) 23:04, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

Places?

Why no mention of Samarra? Clifford Mill (talk) 06:56, 21 April 2016 (UTC)