al-Tabarani

Sulayman ibn Ahmad al-Tabarani (260-360H) was one of the most prolific hadith collectors in Islamic history. Born in Tabariyyah (Tiberias) and having lived to the remarkable age of 100, he traveled widely and compiled three monumental Mu'jam (dictionary-arranged) collections: al-Mu'jam al-Kabir (massive, containing narrations of over a thousand companions), al-Mu'jam al-Awsat (arranged by teachers), and al-Mu'jam al-Saghir. Together these collections contain tens of thousands of hadith and serve as primary sources for many narrations found nowhere else. He was highly regarded but hadith critics note that his chains occasionally include weak narrators.