Ibnu Lahi'ah

Abū Abd al-Raḥmān Abdallāh Ibn Lahīʿa ibn ʿUqba ibn Furʿān ibn Rabīʿa ibn Thawbān al-Ḥaḍramī al-Aʿdūlī (96–174 AH) (714/5–790 CE) more commonly known as Ibn Lahi'a , was an Arab historian, scholar of hadith and Qadi (; ) of Egypt. Famed for being the first judge of Egypt to be appointed directly by a caliph.

Biography Nothing is known about Ibn Lahi'a's early years of his life, except that he was probably born in Egypt in the year 714/5 to a family of Yemeni origin.

Assessment According to the historian Pavel Pavlovich, Ibn Lahi'a is among "the most disparaged second-[Islamic] century traditionists". The 9th-century historian Ibn Sa'd considered him a da'if ('weak') authority, while al-Juzajani dismissed traditions emanating from him as "unreliable", invalid for use in legal arguments or for transmission. The basis for much of the Islamic scholarly criticism of Ibn Lahi'a is frequent omission of one to three informants in his isnads (chains of transmission of historical information). The alleged burning of his books in his house fire was dismissed by Yahya ibn Ma'in (d. 847) as the justification for Ibn Lahi'a's omissions.