Muḥammad Ibn Saʿd b. Manīʿ al-Zuhrī (d. 230/845) is known primarily for his multivolume Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr (“The large book of generations”), the earliest extant historical work of the genre often termed as a biographical dictionary, arranged according to generations (or “classes”), cataloguing the people who disseminated the teachings of the prophet Muḥammad. Ibn Saʿd was born in Basra around the year 168/784, and travelled to Baghdad, where he served as the secretary for the famous historian Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Wāqidī (d. 207/822). He stu…