Ibn Sa'd

Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Sa‘d ibn Manī‘ al-Baṣrī al-Hāshimī¹ or simply Ibn Sa'd (Arabic: ابن سعد) and nicknamed Scribe of Waqidi (Katib al-Waqidi), was a scholar and Arabian biographer. Ibn Sa'd was born in 168 AH (784/785 CE)² and died on 16 February 845 CE (230 AH).² Ibn Sa'd was from Basra,³ but lived mostly in Baghdad, hence the nisba al-Basri and al-Baghdadi respectively. He is said to have died at the age of 62 in Baghdad and was buried in the cemetery of the Syrian gate.⁴

Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kabīr

The Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kabīr (transl. The Major Book of Classes) is a compendium of biographical information (tabaqāt) about famous Islamic personalities. This eight-volume work contains the lives of Muhammad, his Companions and his Helpers, including those who fought at the Battle of Badr as a special class, and of the following generation, the Followers, who received their traditions from the Companions.⁵

Ibn Sa'd's authorship of this work is attested in a postscript to the book added by a later writer. In this notice he is described as a "client of al-Husayn ibn ‘Abdullah of the family". The work was subject to a major study by a European scholar already in 1869.