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
- Companion · 622 CE · 1 BH†Tradition
- Scholar · c. 632 CE · c. 11 AH†Historical
- Official · c. 644 CE · c. 23 AH†Tradition
Sunni (transmitted)
Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.
Brief
Zayd ibn Thabit (may God be pleased with him) was an Ansari boy who learned writing and languages in Medina, became the Prophet's scribe of revelation — and the editor-in-chief of the Qur'an as a book, twice over.
Life
Eleven years old at the Hijra 1, Zayd was set to letters and — in a famous report — to learning Syriac and Hebrew at the Prophet's direction. He grew into the community's principal scribe, writing down revelation as it came.
After the Prophet's death, when the Ridda wars had killed many reciters, Abu Bakr charged Zayd — a young man, as he himself later told it, with a task "like carrying a mountain" — with gathering the Qur'an from written fragments and memories 1. The sheets he assembled passed to Hafsa's keeping; a decade later Uthman named a committee headed by Zayd, which produced the single standard recension sent to the cities 1. He died in Medina about 660.
Legacy
Between spoken revelation and printed Qur'an stands an editor — and the tradition names him. Every recitation in the world today descends from the text Zayd ibn Thabit wrote out.
For young visitors
Zayd was a boy who could write — so the Prophet had him write down the Qur'an, and later two caliphs trusted him to gather it into the book we have now.
Connections
- Spouse of
- Umm Sa'd bint Sa'd ibn al-Rabi'
- Born in
- Medina
- Died in
- Medina
- Member of
- Banu Khazraj· The Ansar
- Participated in
- The Battle of the Trench (al-Ahzab)· The Scribes of Aws and Khazraj and the Complete· The Compilation of the Qur'an under Abu Bakr· The distribution of Hunayn spoils at al-Ji'rana· The Scribes of Quraysh and the Prophet's House· Umar's Expulsion of the Jews of Khaybar and Fadak· Uthman's standardization of the mushaf
- Studied under
- Muhammad
- Mentioned in
- Bukhari 4986 — collecting the Qur'an under Abu Bakr· Bukhari 4987 — Uthman's standard copies· Muwatta 17· Muwatta 116· Muwatta 151· Muwatta 344· Muwatta 369· Muwatta 454· Muwatta 539· Muwatta 1410· Muwatta 1429· Muwatta 1430· Muwatta 1455· Muwatta 1457· Muwatta 1500· Muwatta 1508· Muwatta 1522· Muwatta 1537· Muwatta 1593· Muwatta 1672· Muwatta 1674· Muwatta 1686· Muwatta 1744· Muwatta 1811· Muwatta 1813· Muwatta 1867· Muwatta 1963· Muwatta 2130· Muwatta 2434· Muwatta 2493· Muwatta 2602· Muwatta, Book of Inheritance Shares (faraid)
People and things also explored
Malik ibn Anas· Umar ibn al-Khattab· Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Ansari· Muwatta, Book of Prayer· Abd Allah ibn Dhakwan Abu al-Zinad· Uthman ibn Affan· Abdullah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab· Abu Hurayra
Sources
- Ibn Sa'd, Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir (Bewley translation, Ta-Ha)
- Watt, Muhammad at Medina (1956)
- al-Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim
- Sahih al-Bukhari
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Zayd ibn Thabit”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/zayd-ibn-thabit/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-19.