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A fact from Al-Risalah al-Dhahabiah appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 10 July 2014 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that the c. 8th-century medical text Al-Risalah al-Dhahabiah, attributed to Ali al-Ridha, is also known as the "Golden Treatise"?
I propose to take on this review. Although I know nothing of the subject of the article and am unable to understand Arabic, I see many of the references are in the English language and I should be able to assess the article according to the Good Article criteria. I will make a first reading of the article shortly. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 13:14, 30 August 2014 (UTC)Reply
The article in general is interesting but some of the language is a bit difficult to understand. I have made some alternative suggestions in some cases but feel free to write things in your own way if you wish:
It is not normally necessary to include references in the lead section because the lead is meant to be a summary of the body of the text and it is the main text that should be cited.
I'm puzzled by the mention of "Ali al-Ridha" and "Ali ibn Musa al-Rida". Are these the same person?
Similarly you mention "al-Ma'mun" and "Ma'mun". Are these the same person? Could the same name be used throughout the article or would this be incorrect?
Just curiosity, why would Ma'mun poison Ali al-Ridha?
"Ali ibn Musa al-Rida describes the body as a kingdom whose king is the heart and the (blood) vessels, the limbs, and the brain are the laborers." This is somewhat confusing. How about "Ali ibn Musa al-Rida describes the body as a kingdom whose king is the heart and the (blood) vessels, while the limbs and brain are laborers."
If Ali al-Ridha was "the eighth of the Twelve Imams", was Imam Musa al-Kadhim the seventh?
Why is the word "On" in the middle of the "Author" section, spelt with a capital letter?
" Ali al-Ridha was summoned to Khurasan and he forcibly accepted the special conditions of the succession of Ma'mun." - Do you mean "he was forced to accept the special conditions in order to succeed Ma'mun"?
The section "Author" has no references.
In the "Background" section, it would be better to remove the five bullet points and put the information into prose.
"Hence Imam authored the "The Golden Treatise" at the request of Ma'mun" - Looking at the source, I suggest you say - "Soon after that, Ma'mun departed for Balkh, and wrote to Imam asking him to fulfill his promise and write a treatise on the body and its health." (or something similar)
Again, it would be better to list the main organs in sentence form rather than with bullet points.
"Ali ibn Musa al-Rida describes the body as a kingdom whose king is the heart and the (blood) vessels, the limbs, and the brain are workers." - This sentence is confusing.
"Ali ibn Musa al-Rida sent his dissertation to Ma'mun and he was very pleased to receive that and exhibited his interest by ordering to write it down using gold ink, hence its name "Gold Treatise"." - How about "Ali ibn Musa al-Rida sent his dissertation to Ma'mun who was very pleased to receive it and showed his great interest by ordering that the treatise be written down using gold ink, hence it came to be known as the "Gold Treatise".
"Some efforts have been done to write commentaries on this dissertation some of which are listed here quoted from:"- What about "Various scholars have written commentaries on the dissertation including:"
Done Unnecessary citations were omitted from the lead.
Done Yes, "Ali al-Ridha" and "Ali ibn Musa al-Rida" are the same person. I corrected this problem.
Done The same name is used throughout the article for Ma'mun.
Done Some reasons are mentioned for killing of Ali al-Ridha, some of which are as follows:
The uprising of Abbasides in Baghdad and the decision of Ma'mun for going there to control the situation. His consultants told him that, the presence of Ali al-Ridha in capital while Ma'mun is not present, is dangerous for the government.
In fact Abbasides had uprised because of the fear of Alavaites taking control of the government, So Ma'mun killed Ali al-Ridha to assure them that he is watching the movements and to make them calm.
Done Good suggestion. The sentence changed to "Ali al-Ridha describes the body as a kingdom whose king is the heart while the (blood) vessels, the limbs, and the brain are the laborers."
Ali al-Ridha is the eighth Imam of shia whose father is Imam Mousa al-Kadhim (the seventh Imam).
Done The capital "O" changed to "o".
Ma'mun forced Ali al-Ridha to accept the succession. Ali al-Ridha was not willing to accept it (because Ma'mun wanted to make a good face for himself by having such a successor), but he had no other choice.
The section "Author" is the lead of a main article which has no reference.
Done The bullet points in the "Background" section was added to the text.
Done Your good suggestion was added to the article. Now we have: "Soon after that, Ma'mun departed for Balkh, and wrote to Imam asking him to fulfill his promise and write a treatise on the body and its health, hence Imam authored the "The Golden Treatise" at the request of Ma'mun."
Done The bullet points were omitted.
Done The sentence was changed to "Ali ibn Musa al-Rida sent his dissertation to Ma'mun who was very pleased to receive it and showed his great interest by ordering that the treatise be written down in gold ink, hence it came to be known as the "Gold Treatise"."
The article reads more fluently now and is looking good. A few more points:
"Ali al-Ridha was summoned to Khurasan and he forcibly accepted the succession of Ma'mun." - What about "Ali al-Ridha was summoned to Khurasan and reluctantly accepted the role of successor to Ma'mun that was forced on him."
" He did not outlive Ma'mun, and died on May 26, 818, in Persia while accompanying Ma'mun at Tus. He was poisoned by Ma'mun using grapes." - I think these two sentences could be combined as "He did not outlive Ma'mun, having been given poisoned grapes by him while accompanying him in Persia, and died at Tus on May 26, 818."
Do any of the people or texts you mention in the section "Commentaries on the treatise" have articles to which you could wikilink?
@Cwmhiraeth: The fluency of the article is due to your nice suggestions and thank you for them. By the way the following is done:
Done The sentence changed to "Ali al-Ridha was summoned to Khurasan and reluctantly accepted the role of successor to Ma'mun that was forced on him." It shows that Ali al-Ridha was not willing to accept this role.
Done Another excellent suggestion! I rewrote the sentence as "He did not outlive Ma'mun, having been given poisoned grapes by him while accompanying him in Persia, and died at Tus on May 26, 818."
Done Just two of the scholars had pages in wikipedia. I wikilinked them!
Various improvements have been made during this review and I think the article now complies with MOS guidelines on prose and grammar, structure and layout.
The article uses a limited number of third-party sources but is about a very specialised subject. I do not believe it contains original research.
The article covers the main aspects of the subject and remains focussed.
The article is neutral.
The article was created by the nominator in June 2014 and he is the main contributor. It is stable.
The images are in the public domain. and are relevant and have suitable captions.
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Done Unnecessary citations were omitted from the lead.
