Yahya ibn Ma'in

Yahya ibn Ma'in (يحيى بن معين; 774-847) was a classical Islamic scholar in the field of hadith. He was a close friend of Ahmad ibn Hanbal for much of his life. Ibn Ma'in is known to have spent all of his inheritance on seeking hadith to the extent he became extremely needy.

Professional life
Yahya ibn Ma'in was born in 158 (A.H.) during the caliphate of Abu Ja‘far al-Mansur to Nabataean ancestry from Al-Anbar and was raised in Baghdad. He was the oldest of a prominent group of muḥadiths (experts in ḥadīth) known as Al-Jamā'a Al-Kibār (The Great Assembly), which included Ali ibn al-Madini, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ishaq ibn Rahwayh, Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah, and Abu Khaithama. He was a close friend of Ahmad ibn Hanbal and is often quoted regarding Ilm ar-Rijal. Alongside Ibn Hanbal, Ali ibn al-Madini and Ibn Abi Shaybah, Ibn Ma'in has been considered by many Muslim specialists in hadith to be one of the four most significant authors in the field.

Academic career
Yahya sought knowledge by means of various journeys which he made so rigorously that after the passing of his father, he spent all of his 1,050,000 inherited dirhams on seeking ḥadīth to the extent that nothing remained - not even enough to purchase a pair of shoes. His journey of seeking knowledge of hadith and Islamic rulings caused him to travel to Basrah, Bagdād, Harān, Dimasq, al-Rasāfah, al-Ray, Sanʿā’, Kufā, Egypt and Mecca. Despite being a master of his science, his works were not limited to mere approbations and disapprobation of narrators, or narrating of aḥādīth; rather, he progressed forward as an author writing many books, although many are no longer extant, despite his formally writing as an author from the age of twenty. Of the books available today are; Ma’rifatul al-Rijāl, Yaḥyā bin Maʿīn wa Kitābuhu ‘l-Tārīkh and a small treatise titled ‘Min Kalām Abī Zakariyyā Yaḥyā bin Maʿīn fi ‘l-Rijāl’.

His teachers included Abdullah Ibn al-Mubārak, Ismāʿīl ibn ʿIyāsh, ‘Abād ibn ‘Abād, Sufyān ibn ʿUyainah, Gundur, Abū Muʿāwiyyah, Ḥātim ibn Ismāʿīl, Ḥafṣ ibn Giyāth, Jarīr ibn ʿAbdul-Ḥamīd, ‘Abd ur-Ruzzāq Sanani, Wakī’ and many others from Irāq, Ḥijāz, Jazīrah, Shām and Miṣr.

His famous students included Aḥmad bin Ḥanbal, Muḥammad bin Sʿad, Abū Khaithamah, al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, ʿAbbās al-Dawrī, Abū Ḥātim and many more.

Together with Ibn Saʿd and five others, he was ordered in 218/833 by al-Maʾmūn to profess the createdness of the Quran. T̲h̲reatened with death, they complied and the event was well publicised (al-Ṭabarī, volume 3, 1116). Ibn Ḥanbal never spoke to him subsequently. However, there are reports he repented to him personally at the end of his life, with Ibn Hanbal forgiving him and returning to speaking terms with him. He reputedly exposed many traditions as false and is regarded as one of the most critical early experts on rid̲j̲āl. He reportedly left behind a huge library.