‘Kitab at-Tabaqat al-Kabir’ by Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Sa’d is one of the most important and earliest surviving collections of biographical details of the early Muslims, spanning just over the first two centuries of Islam. The first two volumes of the Tabaqat contain narrations dealing with the life of Prophet Muhammad
Ibn Sa’d is one of the greatest authorities on Islamic biographical literature but very little information has come down to us about his own life. However, on the basis of references in Arabic works some facts,
Ibn Sa’d’s book is a store of information, but the reader hasto be careful in selecting trustworthy and authentic narrations from the mass of material which he has left for us.
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