Why Incline to the Left in Prayer? Sectarianism, Dialectic, and Archaeology in Imāmī Shīʿism

In a chapter of miscellaneous traditions (nawādir) near the end of the “book of prayer” (kitāb al-salāt) of his celebrated collection of Imāmī Shī‘ite traditions, Kulaynī (d. 329/941) has the following tradition:2 ‘Alī b. Muhammad rafa‘ahu qāla: qīla li-Abī ‘Abdi ’llāh ‘alayhi ’l-salām: lima sāra ’l-rajul yanharifu fī ’l-salāt ilā ’l-yasār? fa-qāla: li-anna lil-Ka‘ba sittat hudūd, arba‘a minha ‘an 3 yasarika, wa-’thnan minha ‘ala yaminika, fa-min ajl dhalika waqa ‘a ’l-tahrif4 ilā ’l-yasār. ‘Alī b. Muhammad,6 without a (full) chain of transmission,7 said: Abū ‘Abdallāh [Ja‘far al-Sādiq (d. 148/765)] was asked: “How does it come about that a man inclines to the left in prayer?” He answered: “Because the Ka‘ba has six boundaries, four of them on your left, and two of them on your right; it is on account of this that the inclination is to the left.”