Travels and travails
In 1380, Allamah Amini traveled to India in order to study the Islamic sources and books present in the libraries there.
With this object in mind, he spent four months going through the books available there. Sometime he spent has days and nights, without experiencing any exhaustion. During this period he was able to derive all the information of the past scholars, without caring for his health and comfort.
He continuously studied the books till the last day of his journey; then he returned to his quarters and studied the manuscripts that he had brought with himself.
In addition to the book and study – and in spite of the advice of the physicians regarding his health and their dissuading him from taking classes and advising him to take care of his health, and not to strain himself – the Shaykh on that continent saw upon himself a great religious responsibility and regarded it obligatory to sit on the pulpit for exhortation, advice and justification for Muslims to call them to Quran and Sunnah and what the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) brought.
With this aim in mind, the late Allamah Amini, traveled to Syria in the year 1384 A.H. and stayed there for four months, during which, he sifted through libraries to glean all information pertaining to the field of his studies. Some of the libraries where studied manuscripts, are as follows:
Darul Kutubul Wataniyaa Zahiriyya, Damascus.
Library of Majmuatul Lughatul Arabiyya. Damascus.
Library of Awaqaful Ahmadiyya in Aleppo.
Maktabal Wataniyya in Aleppo.
Allamah Amini described each book that he studied in these libraries and they are more than two hundred and fifty books.
Then in 1388 A.H. he traveled to study ancient manuscripts in Turkey and procured a large number of books from there regarding Islamic heritage. He remained in that country, in spite of his pain and illness, from which he was suffering since the past year. He paid no heed to his health and physical well being in order to accomplish his aim of compiling Al-Ghadeer.
He stayed in Istanbul for fifteen days, then moved to Borsa, where he stayed for ten days and researched through the books present in libraries over there. Some of the libraries he referred there were: Sulaimaniya Library, Library of Jame Ayah Sufiya, Noore Uthmaniya Library, Ughuli Library, Chalbi library etc.
Due to his failing health, he was unable to study all the books that he had planned. He was content only to study fifty-five written manuscripts and historical records as follows: Saheeh Ibne Habban, Saheeh Ibne Khuzaima, Muhammad bin Ishaq Nishapuri, Azfa of Muhammad bin Ismail Bukhari, Musnad Abad bin Hamid of Imam Abu Muhammad Abad bin Hamid Kishi, AlMojamul Kabeer Tibrani, Najmus Thaqib fee Israqil Manaqib of Hasan bin Umar bin Habib Halabi, Al-Kamil of Hafiz Abdullah Ibne Iddi Jurjani, Lulu wal Maknoon of Abdul Ghani Nablusi and so on