Yahya ibn Zakariya ibn Abi Za'ida

Yahya ibn Zakariya ibn Abi Za'ida al-Hamdani, Abu Sa'id al-Kufi — trustworthy and precise (thiqa mutqin), of the senior ranks of the ninth generation-layer in the judgement of the rijal critics; he died in 183 or 184 AH aged sixty-three, and learning in Kufa ended with him after Sufyan al-Thawri ¹.

Ibn Hajar writes: Yahya ibn Zakariya ibn Abi Za'ida al-Hamdani — with sukun on the mim — Abu Sa'id al-Kufi: trustworthy and precise, of the senior ninth layer; he died in the year three-or-four and eighty and a hundred, aged sixty-three, and the whole group of the six books transmitted from him ¹. In al-Dhahabi's Kashif appended to the Taqrib: he transmits from his father, Asim al-Ahwal and Dawud ibn Abi Hind, and Ibn Ma'in and Abu Kurayb transmit from him; Ibn al-Madini said "there was no one in Kufa after al-Thawri firmer than he — knowledge ended with him after al-Thawri"; and al-Ijli said "he is one for whom fiqh and hadith were both gathered; he has compilations; he died in 183" ¹.

Yahya ibn Abi Za'ida was a Kufan scholar and memoriser whom the leading critics counted the firmest hadith authority in Kufa after Sufyan al-Thawri; he combined fiqh and hadith and composed books.

• Taqrib al-Tahdhib entry t. 7548 (Majmu'at al-Kutub scan, p. 660).
• Two death-year reports in the same text: 183 or 184 AH; al-Ijli's ascription specifies 183 AH.
• "Knowledge ended with him after al-Thawri" is quoted from Ibn al-Madini in Kashif al-Dhahabi — the book's own attestation, not the museum's verdict.