Geographical limitations of Shia ilm al rijal

Synopsis: In the past, I had posted this article (click here) outlining the major problem of mursal narrations in the Shia books of rijal. This article is second in that series, and outlines the next problem of geographic limitations. While Shia ilmur rijal enjoys the advantage that its main books of rijal and their authors are from both Western Persia (such as the rijal and fihrist books of Shaikh Tusi and Najashi, as well as Shaikh al Barqi, Shaikh Saduq etc etc; which are from Baghdad and Qum) as well as Eastern Persia aka Greater Khorasan (such as books of Shaikh Ayyashi, Kashi and Fadl bin Shadhan which are from Samarqand, Kash and Nishapur), which provides very good coverage of Shia hadith narrators as the bulk of Shia narrators were based in Persia; however, it can not be ignored that due to lack of telecommunications and modern travel arrangements in those times, the Shia books of ilm al rijal do have geographic limitations.

"Authority of the mursal narrations of trustworthy narrators" by Ayatullah Murtada Hussaini Shirazi, Page 159 (original Arabic page posted at the bottom of the post)

"To conclude, the narrators who lived in the academic centres and the close by and primary cities such as Baghdad and Qum, and their likes, information about their tawtheeq and jarh is prevalent in the books of rijal because it was easier for the scholars of rijal such as Shaikh Najashi and others to have information about them, hence the they presented a lot of information about narrators from such areas, in contrast to the narrators from far away cities; as obtaining knowledge about them was difficult and the chance of missing out on information about a lot of them is great."

"Ijtihad and taqlid in ilm al rijal" by Ayatullah Muhammad al Sanad al Bahrani, page 124 (original Arabic page posted at the bottom of the post)

"The research into the sources of information about hadith narrators and the books of rijal is not sufficed just by the six books of rijal and its like which were compiled in the academic centres of Kufa, Baghdad and Qum; for although these centres of knowledge were primary and leading centres, but it does not dismiss the presence other Shia centres of knowledge for ahadith and narrations, such as the centres of Raayy, Nishapur, Jowzjan, Astrabad (Gorgan), Shiraz, Egypt, Aleppo, Makkah etc, with differences in their strength and weakness; but nonetheless that does not negate their presence in itself.

That is why Shaikh Saduq spent great time travelling to cities like Khurasan, Merv, Samarqand, Bukhara etc; as well as other great scholars such as al Tala'kbari."

"Hujjiyah marasil al thiqat al mu'tamidah" page 159, collection of Ayatullah Murtada al Hussaini al Shirazi's lectures, compiled by Syed Hazim al Miyali and Shaikh Zaid al Kadhmi

"Al Ijtehd wa al Taqleed fi Ilm al Rijal" page 124, collection of Ayatullah Muhammad al Sanad al Bahrani's lectures; compiled by Shaikh Hasan al Kashani, Shaikh Mujtaba al Iskandri and Shaikh Muhammad al Mikbas