Dawud ibn Qasim al-Jafari was one of the descendants of Ja‘far ibn Abi Talib (a), the brother of Imam Ali (a). He was known by the kunyah, ‘Abu Hashim’. He was the wakil of one of the deputies of Imam al-Mahdi (ajtf) in Ghaibate Sugra. He lived through the challenging era of the Abbasid caliphate and was a loyal companion of 4 Imams: Imam al-Ridha (a), Imam al-Jawad (a), Imam al-Hadi (a) and Imam Hasan al-Askari (a).