Structural and Content Analysis of the Imam Mohammad Al-Baqir ‘s Letters

In the path of the spreading the Islamic teachings and managing the affairs of the Islamic community, corresponding and exchanging of letters has been one of the  Shi’i Imams’ works among their other written traditions. Sometimes The addressee of these letters were certain persons or a group of Shi’a or Imam’s representatives or even the contemporary governors. These letters, as historical documents, reveal dimensions of cultural, social and political role of Shi’i Imam. In this investigation the letters of Imam Mohammad Al-Baqir (p. b. u. h.) were examined and analyzed. By the word letter here I mean a written document that can be placed under this definition: “a written document which is sent to a person or to persons”. These letters were examined from two aspects: their “structure”, including internal and external structure, and their “content”. By external structure it is meant the features which are out of letter’s text such as: their numeral, destination, writing instruments, the system of transition, the narrator of the letter and its historical source. So considering the low number of Imam Al-Baqir’s letters, while the duration of his imamate was a nearly long period of time, and also, not having a formal secretary for writing indicates the politically sensitive conditions of that time. The structural form of the letters shows using the ordinary method in corresponding. By internal structural I mean those elements which can be found within the text of the letters: some aspects like: the characteristics of beginning of each letter, ending it, naming the addressee or addressees in them, their bulk and so on. Finally, in the last chapter which is related to the content analysis the letters, on the basis of their subject matter were categorized into three parts: moral-doctrinal, jurisprudential and personal, then through selecting key words and their frequency in each group the significant concepts were brought out, explained and analyzed.