Ahmad al-Ghadairi

He attended the classes of his father with al-Najashi and al-Shaykh Tusi. `Inayat Allah Quhpa'i, in Majma` al-Rijal, mentions him as a teacher of al-Najashi and al-Tusi. But he seems to have confused the father with the son. Similarly, many an author of books on Rijal have mistakenly attributed Ahmad b. al-Husayn's work on Rijal to his father. Al-Shaykh al-Tusi, in al-Fihrist, refers to two books of Ahmad b. al-Husayn, saying one is on usul and the other is on Rijal.
Al-`Allama Shaykh Aqa Buzurg al-Tihrani, in Musaffa al-maqal fi musannifi al-rijal, is of the view that these two books might have been in addition to two of his known works on rijal, of which one is about authentic `ulama' and the other is about inauthentic or weak narrators of hadith. Sayyid Ahmad b. Tawus (d. 673/1273) has reproduced an entire book of al-Ghada'ri, that is his book al-Du`afa', in his own work, Hall al-ishkal. This copy of the book reached Mulla `Abd Allah al-Shushtari (d. 1021/1612), who in his turn reproduced the book in his work on rijal, and this was the version of al-Ghada'iri's Rijal that is available to us today. It seems strange that these two books were not mentioned by al-Tusi, but were available to Ibn Tawus, and that two of his pupils, al-`Allama al-Hilli and Ibn Dawud also quoted from it.
Aqa Buzurg al-Tihrani, in Musaffa al-maqal fi musannifi al-rijal, says that Ibn Tawus himself had not established its authenticity, but he merely described it as one attributed to Ibn al-Ghada'iri, and his pupils accepted it on his authority. Al-`Allama al-Hilli and Ibn Dawud could also discover Ibn al-Ghada'iri's book on mamduhun. There is no evidence that al-Najashi had these books, but he referred to another work of Ibn al-Ghada'iri, al-Ta'rikh, in his account of Ahmad b. Abi `Abd Allah al-Barqi.
It is just possible that by al-Ta'rikh he meant the same two books. In al-Dhari`a, also, Aqa Buzurg has discussed the authenticity of Kitab al-Du`afa; and concluded that most probably this work was compiled by an anti-Shi`a author in order to malign rijal of the Imamiyya, and it was wrongly attributed to Ibn al-Ghada'iri. However, two points are clear: the son al-Ghada'iri is the author of the often quoted book on rijal, and secondly that the book about inauthentic Shi`i rijal is a spurious one, wrongly attributed to him.