Ikrimah mawla ibn Abbas

Ikrimah al-Barbari mawla ibn Abbas (d. 105 AH / 723 CE) was a Berber scholar and freed slave of the companion Abdullah ibn Abbas — the Interpreter of the Quran — under whose personal guidance he studied for many years and became one of the foremost authorities on Quranic interpretation (tafsir) in the Tabiin generation. His full name in the Islamic biographical tradition is simply Ikrimah, with his nisba referring to his status as a freed slave (mawla) of Ibn Abbas and his Berber origin. His kunya was Abu Abdullah.

Ikrimah studied under Ibn Abbas for an extended period, benefiting from the most authoritative source of tafsir knowledge available to the Muslim community. He was so devoted a student that Ibn Abbas reportedly said of him: "I taught Ikrimah the entire Quran and all of my knowledge." This comprehensive transmission meant that Ikrimah became the primary channel through which Ibn Abbas's tafsir opinions reached later generations. His commentary opinions are among the most frequently cited Tabiin views in the classical tafsir literature of at-Tabari, Ibn Abi Hatim, and Ibn Kathir.

Ikrimah was also an indefatigable traveler, carrying his knowledge from Egypt to North Africa, from Iraq to the Levant and Khorasan, spreading the interpretive tradition of Ibn Abbas across the entire Muslim world. This extensive travel meant that his tafsir knowledge became widely disseminated in regions that might not otherwise have had access to the Meccan tradition of Quranic interpretation.

However, some hadith scholars, most notably Imam Malik ibn Anas, expressed reservations about certain of his narrations, with Malik reportedly instructing his household not to transmit from Ikrimah in the hadith domain. Al-Bukhari, by contrast, accepted him as reliable and included his narrations in his Sahih. This scholarly difference of opinion about his hadith transmission is distinct from the broad acceptance of his tafsir authority, which was virtually universal. He died in Medina in approximately 105 AH (723 CE), leaving behind a tafsir legacy that permeates the entire classical Quranic commentary tradition.