Many theologians and preachers have fallen into this same pattern. They would recite the transmitted supplications found in the Sahīfah (Collection) of Alī ibn al-Husayn, even though most of them were falsely attributed to Alī ibn al-Husayn.
In sum, al-Shahrastānī displays an inclination toward the Shiites, whether out of inward conviction or merely to placate them. He composed this book—Religions and Sects—for one of their leaders, who had authority over two administrative bureaus. Al-Shahrastānī had reason to ingratiate himself with him. Likewise (1), he composed for him The Contest, presenting the dispute between himself and Avicenna (2), because that leader was inclined toward Shiism and philosophy. The best that can be said of him is that he was one of the Shiites, if not one of the Ismailis—I mean the man for whom the book was composed. Hence, al-Shahrastānī showed manifest bias in favor of the Shiites (3) in it.
(1) N reads: “For that reason.”
(2) This is *Musāraat al-Falāsifa* (*The Contest with the Philosophers*), edited by Dr. Suhayr Muhammad Mukhtār (Cairo, 1396/1976). On page 13 of the introduction, she states that al-Shahrastānī composed it for Abū al-Qāsim Alī ibn Jafar al-Mūsawī. Dr. Suhayr also states that al-Shahrastānī composed *al-Milal wa-l-Nihal* (*Religions and Sects*) for him as well, rather than for the vizier Nasīr al-Dīn, who served as Sultan Sanjar’s vizier in AH 521, as Dr. Muhammad ibn Fath Allāh Badrān asserted in the first edition of *al-Milal wa-l-Nihal*, 1:3–5. In her introduction to *Musāraat al-Falāsifa* (p. 29), Dr. Suhayr quotes Sadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī as saying in *al-Asfār al-Arbaa*, 2:275: “He composed this book for Majd al-Dīn Abū al-Qāsim Alī ibn Jafar al-Mūsawī as a work against Ibn Sīnā, around AH 540.” I have found no biography of Alī ibn Jafar in the reference works available to me. Dr. Suhayr states that he was Alī ibn Jafar ibn Alī, whose lineage extended back to Mūsā al-Kāzim. Alī ibn Jafar governed Tirmidh and invited scholars there from cities throughout the region of Khurāsān. Among them was al-Shahrastānī, who composed first *al-Milal wa-l-Nihal* and then *Musāraat al-Falāsifa* for him.
(3) M reads: “the Shiites,” which is a textual corruption.