Ibn Sa'd Kitab Al-Tabaqat Al-Kabir

Ibn Sa'd Kitab Al-Tabaqat Al-Kabir

In view of the importance of Ibn Sa'd's Kitab al-Tabaqát al-Kabir as one of the earliest works on the biographical literature of Islam and a valuable source of information for the students of Islamic history as well as scholars engaged in research, the Society has decided to publish an English translation of this voluminous book. The Urdu translation of the Tabaqát was published by the Translation Bureau, Hyderabad Deccan, in 1944; this however is now out of print. Moreover, it does not contain the full chains of narrators as given in the original. No doubt, many of the narrations included in the Tabaqát are fabricated and untrustworthy and cannot be accepted as authority, but the book is a vast mine of information, and the modern reader will find considerable material which is useful for the early history of Islam.