I know this topic is often treated as ‘Abbassid’s propaganda against Imam Hassan (as), but we also have few reliable (as per isnad) narrations in shi’i litterature stating that the Imam (as) would marry and divorce very frequently. Therefore, I have some questions :

1) Focusing only on shi’i sources, can we categorically deny that Imam Hassan (as) married and divorced a lot of women ? If yes, please explain why.
2) Why don’t we have any ahadiths of our Imams (as) denying the story, rather some confirm it ?
3) If this propaganda began with al-Mansur, why did he not accused the Imam (as) of other immoral acts ? Surely this story should have had a background beforehand, it seems weird that al-Mansur invented everything.
4) If we admit Imam Hassan (as) could have done that, then what were his motivations for marrying and divorcing that much. As for sure he wasn’t motivated by lustful desires.

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I will share these points about this topic:

1- The number of hadiths that we have in our Shia sources about the Imam marrying and divorcing a lot is 6 hadiths. Three of these hadiths are the main hadiths that claim he divorced a lot.

2- In the hadith narrated by Kafi, there are two Waqifis in the chain. Even though they are generally reliable, but given the fact that they are Waqifis weakens the hadith to an extent. Some scholars don’t even accept the hadith of a Waqifi, so according to their standard the narration is weak. The other narration in Kafi is weak from a sanad perspective since there is an anonymous narrator in the chain.

3- So we only have one Sahih hadith from a sanad perspective, and that’s the hadith of Barqi.

4- We have Sahih many hadiths that indicate the Imam is infallible and doesn’t do anything inappropriate. We cannot put all these hadiths to the side due to one sahih hadith claiming the Imam was a habitual divorcee.

5- Assuming the hadith sahih and that there is a background before it, here’s what it could be:

One: Imam Hassan (a) wanted to form bonds with various tribes to save the Shis from the Umayyads. The Umayyads were very powerful, and in that tribal society, one way to gain supporters and form an alliance was to marry from different tribes. The Imam had a noble purpose in marrying many women.

Two: Given that he was the first grandson to the Prophet (s), many fathers would approach him and ask him to marry their daughters so they can have the honor of being connected to the Prophet (s). The Imam didn’t want to turn them down. But they knew he was going to divorce them because practically he couldn’t live with all those women.

There could also be other reasons.

So maybe there was a basis for it, then the enemies of the Ahlulbayt (a) used it to exaggerate and slander the Imam.