The principal narrator of the work was Abdallah ibn Aḥmad ibn Amer, who retells the words of Ali al-Ridha with each entry beginning with a variation of "Through his chain of authorities, he said".[1][lower-alpha 1] His father, who was said to have related these words to him, was killed at the Battle of Siffin. The family were descendants of Wahb ibn Amer who was killed with Husayn, son of Ali, at the Battle of Karbala.