The identification of infallibility (ʿiṣma) is a foundational issue in the Imāmī doctrine of the Imamate. Orientalist scholars have generally mentioned that, since infallibility is an inner quality, an infallible Imam can be known only through divine designation and an explicit naṣṣ from the Prophet Muḥammad (PBUH). On the basis of certain reports in Furāt al-Kūfī’s Tafsīr that appear to confine infallibility to the Five (Ahl al-Kisāʾ), Bar-Asher has questioned both the narrations of all Twelve Imams’ infallibility and the existence of this belief in the earliest Imāmī centuries prior to the fourth/tenth century. Using an analytical-critical approach, this article examines Orientalist accounts of the identification of infallibility and the referents of infallible Imams in early Imāmī sources. The findings show that Imāmī theologians did not limit proof of infallibility to the Prophet’s declaration; they also relied on the testimony of the preceding Imam and the Imam’s miraculous knowledge, aspects largely overlooked in Orientalist research. The claim that infallibility was restricted to the Five is also contradicted by reliable reports extending the Purification Verse (Q 33:33) to the Twelve Imams and by fourth-century narrations affirming their infallibility. Furthermore, the mutawātir reports of the “Twelve Caliphs” in both Shīʿī and Sunnī sources, together with the rational necessity of the Imam’s infallibility, support the doctrine of the infallibility of the Prophet’s twelve successors. Therefore, reliance on selected reports from Furāt al-Kūfī’s Tafsīr cannot undermine the broader Imāmī position grounded in extensive textual and rational evidence.