Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri (d. 124AH/741-2CE) was a renowned hadith scholar in the Sunni tradition.1 His name also appears in the chains of narration of over 150 hadith, including hadith in Shi’a sources. Nonetheless, despite his presence in Shi’a books, Shi‘a scholars historically have diverged about whether or not to accept al-Zuhri as reliable, particularly because of his connections with the Umayyad ruling powers. In this paper, the views of Shi‘a biographers on al-Zuhri will be examined as well as the hadith attributed to him to offer a conclusive view on whether he should be accepted as a reliable narrator within the Shi‘a tradition.

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