General · EdgepediaOctober 10, 20266 min read

Muhammad ibn Isa ibn Yazid Abu Bakr al-Tamimi

Muhammad ibn Isa ibn Yazid Abu Bakr al-Tamimi (محمد بن عيسى بن يزيد أبو بكر التميمي), also recorded as al-Tarsusi and al-Thaghri, was a ninth-century Sunni hadith hafiz and itinerant transmitter (muhaddith rihal jawwal) who settled in Balkh and died there in 276 or 277 AH (c. 890 CE).¹^•² He is notable chiefly for the split verdicts of the classical hadith critics: al-Hakim praised him as famous for travel, understanding, and verification, while Ibn 'Adi placed him among those who steal hadith.¹

Key fact	Detail
Identity	Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Isa ibn Yazid al-Tamimi al-Tarsusi al-Thaghri, hafiz and wandering transmitter, resident of Balkh²
Death	276 or 277 AH (c. 890 CE), in Balkh; sources disagree on the year¹
Corpus	28 hadiths indexed across 31 isnads in the digital narrator database¹
Praise	Al-Hakim: famous for rihla, understanding, and verification (tathbut); the people of Merv took most of his hadith¹
Criticism	Ibn 'Adi: he is among those who steal hadith, and most of what he narrates is not corroborated by trustworthy narrators¹
Mixed verdict	Ibn Hibban included him in al-Thiqat while noting that he erred frequently¹
Students	Ibn Khuzayma, Abu 'Awana al-Isfarayini, Abu al-'Abbas al-Dughuli, and Makki ibn 'Abdan³

Name, lineage, and tribal affiliation

The biographical dictionaries give his full name as Muhammad ibn Isa ibn Yazid, with the kunya Abu Bakr, and attach three nisbas: al-Tamimi, by descent from the Arab tribe of Tamim; al-Tarsusi, from Tarsus; and al-Thaghri, a reference to the frontier districts (thughur).² One compendium describes him as al-Hafiz, "the expert" (al-bari'), and records his activity in Isfahan, Khurasan, and Balkh, with Tarsus also listed among his places of activity.⁴ The kunya Abu Bakr is confirmed in the narrator databases and in Ibn 'Adi's verdict as quoted there.¹^•⁵

Life, travels, and teaching milieu

His career was built on rihla, the itinerant pursuit of hadith. The sources place his teaching in Isfahan, Khurasan, and Balkh, and record his travel region as Transoxiana (ma wara' al-nahr), where, according to Ibn Hibban, he entered and taught the hadith he had collected.¹^•² Al-Hakim's verdict, as quoted by al-Dhahabi's compilers, says the people of Merv took most of his hadith.¹^•²

Teachers and students. Al-Dhahabi records that he narrated from Abu Nu'aym, Abu al-Yaman, and 'Affan and their cohort, and that Ibn Khuzayma, Abu 'Awana al-Isfarayini, Abu al-'Abbas al-Dughuli, and Makki ibn 'Abdan narrated from him.³ The digital indexes add further names on both sides: the Sunnah.com entry lists teachers including 'Abd al-Razzaq ibn Hammam al-Humayri, 'Abd Allah ibn Salih al-Juhani, Sulayman ibn Harb, al-Hakam ibn Nafi', and 'Umar ibn Sinan, and students including 'Abdan ibn Muhammad al-Marwazi, Ahmad ibn 'Ubayd Allah al-Darmi, and al-Qasim ibn Muhammad al-Karmani.⁵ A parallel Sunnah.com entry lists a different teacher set, including al-Dahhak ibn Mukhlad al-Nabil, 'Abd Allah ibn Yazid al-'Adawi, Muslim ibn Ibrahim al-Farahidi, Yahya ibn Bakir al-Qurashi, and Isma'il ibn Abi Uways al-Asbahi, and carries the same praise formula "among the famous for seeking, travel, abundance, understanding, and verification".⁶ The hdith.com encyclopedia lists 18 named teachers, among them Ishaq ibn Muhammad al-Farawi, Isma'il ibn Abi Uways, and Rabi' ibn Nafi' al-Halabi.⁷

The network itself is informative. A transmitter could teach in Isfahan, Khurasan, and Balkh, and end his life in Balkh, with students who included the hadith scholar Ibn Khuzayma. This is the long-distance, person-to-person chain of custody on which ninth-century hadith transmission depended, in which a narrator's reputation traveled with him and was formed in several cities at once.²^•³

Narrations and transmission

The digital narrator database indexes 28 hadiths for him across 31 isnads, and his narrations most often place him at position 6 or 7 of the isnad, that is, several links above the collectors who recorded the material.¹ Ibn 'Adi analyzed specific chains in which he appears. In one, a report that the Prophet forbade the sale of gharar (deceptive or uncertain sale) transmitted via 'Atiq ibn Ya'qub from Malik was declared void (batil) by that isnad.¹^•² In another, a hadith on praying the night and day two prayers at a time, Ibn 'Adi alleged that Muhammad ibn Isa combined Malik and al-'Umari in a single chain by theft from al-Janbi.¹ A further example cited is a report that the price of all dogs is sught (a void exchange), judged not preserved.²

Evaluation by hadith critics

The classical record on this narrator is genuinely two-sided, and the verdicts belong to the named critics rather than to any later consensus.

The critics against him. Ibn 'Adi judged that he is among those who steal hadith (yasriq al-hadith) and that most of what he narrates is not corroborated by trustworthy narrators.¹

The critics for him. Al-Hakim called him one of those famous for travel (rihla), understanding, and verification (tathbut).¹ Ibn Hibban included him in his biographical dictionary of reliable narrators, al-Thiqat, while noting that he entered Transoxiana, taught there, and erred frequently (yukhti' kathiran).¹ The hdith.com compilation preserves both strands side by side: "he steals hadith", "his hadiths are not corroborated", "he errs frequently", alongside "one of the famous and firm (thabt) narrators" and Ibn Hibban's inclusion of him among the trustworthy.⁷

Ibn Hibban's own entry contains the mechanism of a middle position: inclusion among the trustworthy with a stated frequency of error. Ibn 'Adi's charge is stronger and is supported by his chain-by-chain analysis of specific reports.¹

By the numbers

The measurable record is small, which matters for how the verdicts should be read. The database indexes 28 hadiths across 31 isnads, with the narrator most often at isnad position 6 or 7.¹ Ibn 'Adi's general charge that most of what he narrates is uncorroborated is therefore a judgment over a corpus of a few dozen indexed reports, of which he analyzed a handful in detail: the gharar-sale report declared void, the prayer report alleged to be stolen from al-Janbi, and the dogs-price report judged not preserved.¹^•² The death year is reported as 276 AH in one entry of the compilation and 277 AH in another, with al-Dhahabi's compilers giving 277; the digital databases carry both, "276 or 277".¹^•²^•⁸

References

Initially written Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026