Muhammad ibn Sa'd ibn Mani' al-Baghdadi

Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Sa‘d ibn Manī‘ al-Baṣrī al-Hāshimī or simply Ibn Sa'd and nicknamed Scribe of Waqidi (Katib al-Waqidi), was a scholar and Arabian biographer. Ibn Sa'd was born in and died on 16 February 845 CE (230 AH).

Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kabīr The Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kabīr 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.

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 ‘Abbasid family". The work was subject to a major study by a European scholar already in 1869.

Contents Books 1 and 2 contain a prophetic biography. Books 3 and 4 contain biographies of companions of Muhammad. Books 5, 6 and 7 contain biographies of later Islamic scholars. Book 8 contains biographies of Islamic women.

Published editions

Arabic (includes brief German synopses with page references for each book, reprinted in 2022 as online link In 1968, Iḥsān Abbās edited it (Beirut: Dār Sādir). Contains 11 volumes.

English S. Moinul Haq (transl.), Ibn Sa'd's Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir: Volume I, Parts I & II; Karachi: Pakistan Historical Society, 1967 [= Pakistan Historical Society Publication, no. 46]

S. Moinul Haq (transl.), Ibn Sa'd's Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir: Volume II, Parts I & II; Karachi: Pakistan Historical Society, 1972 [= Pakistan Historical Society Publication, no. 59]

S. Moinul Haq (transl.), Ibn Sa'd's Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir: Volume I ( Kitab Bhavan, New Delhi, 1981)

S. Moinul Haq (transl.), Ibn Sa'd's Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir: Volume ll ( Kitab Bhavan, New Delhi, 1981)

Abridged translations of Volumes 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 have been translated by Aisha Bewley and published under the titles of The Companions of Badr, The Men of Madina-II, The Scholars of Kufa, The Men of Madina-I, and The Women of Madina.