At a glance
- Roles
- Companion · Scholar
- Counted among
- Sunni
- Era
- The Prophetic Era · The Rashidun Caliphate · The Umayyad Period
- Region
- Arabia
- Identifiers
- Wikidata
- Review
- Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it
Life in time
In space
Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph
Scripture and its sciencesDevelopment of law, theology and institutions
Place in the story
- Family of the ProphetTradition
- Companion · 622 CE · 1 BH†Tradition
- Scholar · c. 640 CE · c. 19 AH†Historical
- Official · c. 656 CE · c. 35 AH† – c. 660 CE · c. 40 AH†Tradition
Sunni (transmitted)
How others named them
- “Hibr al-Umma (the scholar of the community); Tarjuman al-Qur'an (interpreter of the Qur'an)” — Islamic tradition
Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.
Ibn Abbas was a wise companion for whom the Prophet ﷺ prayed for understanding, becoming the scholar who explained the Qur'an.
Abdullah ibn Abbas (may God be pleased with him) was the Prophet ﷺ's young cousin, acclaimed as the Sage of the Community and the Interpreter of the Qur'an. Blessed by the Prophet's prayer for deep comprehension, he studied with senior companions, mastering Arabic poetry, vocabulary, and circumstances of revelation, establishing celebrated teaching circles in Mecca and Basra.
Storytellers (10–12) read the Explorers text, then cross to the Scholars text.
Abu al-Abbas Abdullah ibn Abbas (may God be pleased with him) (3 BH – 68 AH / 619–687 CE), acclaimed as the Sage of the Community (Habr al-Umma) and Interpreter of the Qur'an (Tarjuman al-Qur'an). Born in Mecca shortly before the Hijra, he was blessed by the Prophet ﷺ's prayer for deep understanding of religion and the interpretation of scripture. Following the Prophet's passing, he rigorously collected traditions and linguistic usage from senior companions, pioneering systematic Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir) by utilizing classical Arabic poetry, lexical analysis, and contexts of revelation (asbab al-nuzul), founding the renowned Meccan school of commentary through students like Mujahid and Sa'id ibn Jubayr.
Brief
Abdullah ibn Abbas (may God be pleased with him) was the Prophet ﷺ's young cousin — a boy when the Prophet died, and later the tradition's founding authority on what the Qur'an means.
Life
Born about 619 CE, three years before the Hijra, Ibn Abbas grew up in Medina in the Prophet's extended household 1. The traditions describe the Prophet praying that God teach him the interpretation — and describe the boy's hunger to learn from every Companion he could find.
Under the caliphs he became a teacher and jurist; under Ali he served as governor of Basra, then withdrew to the Hijaz after Ali's death 1. Generations of students memorized his explanations of Qur'an passages, his legal judgments, and his store of Arabic poetry; nearly every later commentary cites him. He died at Taif about 688 1.
Legacy
The whole genre of Qur'an commentary — tafsir — traces its ancestry to his teaching. Wherever a commentator writes "Ibn Abbas said," the chain claims to start here.
For young visitors
Ibn Abbas was only a boy when the Prophet died, but he spent his life asking the elders everything they remembered — and became the great explainer of the Qur'an.
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Connections
- Born in
- Mecca
- Died in
- Ta'if
- Child of
- al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib· Umm al-Fadl Lubaba bint al-Harith
- Member of
- Banu Hashim· Quraysh
- Participated in
- The Hijra· Ali appoints the sons of al-Abbas and Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr as governors· Ali burns people in Kufa who claimed he was God· Ali declines to keep Muawiya in office· Dimam ibn Tha'laba comes as the envoy of Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr· Reported advice to Ali by Ibn Abbas and al-Mughira on keeping or removing Uthman's governors· Ibn ʿAbbās quits Basra for Mecca (40 AH)· The pen-and-paper incident· The Prophet's request for a writing in his last illness· the splitting of the moon
- Mentioned in
- Arba'un 19 — O boy, I shall teach you words· Arba'un 33 — proof on the claimant, oath on the denier· Arba'un 37 — God wrote the good deeds and the evil deeds· Arba'un 39 — God pardoned my community error and forgetfulness· Arba'un 43 — give the fixed shares to their people· Bukhari 3189 — No hijra after the conquest; the sanctity of Mecca· Bukhari 3401 — Musa and al-Khidr· Muslim 218 — Seventy thousand entering Paradise without reckoning· Muslim 2308 — More generous with good than the blowing wind· Muslim 2477 — O God, give him understanding of the religion· Muwatta 20· Muwatta 54· Muwatta 58· Muwatta 89· Muwatta 95· Muwatta 208· Muwatta 317· Muwatta 330· Muwatta 331· Muwatta 370· Muwatta 385· Muwatta 398· Muwatta 426· Muwatta 508· Muwatta 526· Muwatta 573· Muwatta 574· Muwatta 580· Muwatta 1407· Muwatta 1408· Muwatta 1436· Muwatta 1437· Muwatta 1493· Muwatta 1534· Muwatta 1581· Muwatta 1657· Muwatta 1659· Muwatta 1725· Muwatta 1728· Muwatta 1745· Muwatta 1765· Muwatta 1766· Muwatta 1924· Muwatta 2513· Muwatta 2745· Muwatta 2757· Muwatta 2774· Muwatta 2775· Muwatta 2785· Muwatta 783· Muwatta 804· Muwatta 806· Muwatta 839· Muwatta 1015· Muwatta 1039· Muwatta 1046· Muwatta 1075· Muwatta 1122· Muwatta 1136· Muwatta 1137· Muwatta 1138· Muwatta 1141· Muwatta 1181· Muwatta 1257· Muwatta 1276· Muwatta 901· Muwatta 964· Muwatta 1295· Muwatta 1312· Muwatta 1323· Muwatta 1351· Muwatta 1352· Muwatta 1364
People and things also explored
Muhammad· Muwatta, Book of Prayer· Muwatta, Book of Pilgrimage (hajj)· Malik ibn Anas· Muhammad ibn Shihab al-Zuhri· Salah (the prescribed prayer)· Mecca· Ali ibn Abi Talib
Sources
- Ibn Sa'd, Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir (Bewley translation, Ta-Ha)
- Watt, Muhammad at Medina (1956)
- Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi
- The Umayyad State — Bakr Muhammad Ibrahim Bakr (1st ed., Markaz al-Raya lil-Nashr wal-I'lam, Cairo 2002)
- Sahih al-Bukhari
- Sahih Muslim
- Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Ali ibn Abi Talib, vol. 1 — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 3 (scan)
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Abdullah ibn Abbas”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/abdullah-ibn-abbas/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-25.