Abū Ḥamza al-Thumālī, Abū Ḥamza Thābit b. Abī Ṣafiyya Dīnār al-Thumālī (d. 149/766), was a Shiʿi traditionist, exegete and jurist from Kūfa. His family were descended from the Ṭayy tribe and he was born in the quarter of the Banū Thumāla in Kūfa (Ibn Bābawayh, Man lā yaḥḍuruh, 4/444). The Muhallabids claimed that his father was a mawlā (client) affiliated to them (Ibn Abī Ḥātim, 1(1)/450; al-Najāshī, 115).

Given the date of death of his teachers, Suwayd b. Ghafala (d. 81/700) and Zādhān b. ʿUmar al-Kindī (d. 82/701), he must have …