Zayd b. T̲ h̲ābit (920 words) , an Anṣārī [see anṣār ] Companion of the Prophet Muḥammad credited with a crucial role in the collection of the Ḳurʾān [q.v. at Vol. V, 404b-405b]. He belonged to the Banu ’l-Nad̲jd̲̲ jār ̲ of the K̲ h̲azrad̲j,̲ or more precisely, to the ʿAbd ʿAwf b. G̲ h̲anm b. Mālik b. al-Nad̲jd̲̲ jār. ̲ His mother, al-Nawār bt. Mālik, was of the ʿAdī b. al-Nad̲jd̲̲ jār. ̲ Much of the rather detailed biographical information about Zayd was preserved by ḥadīt̲h̲ transmitters from among his offspring who were intensely interested in the life and work of their great ancestor. Zayd’s father was killed in the battle of Buʿāt̲h̲ [q.v.], when Zayd was six years old; at the time of the Hid̲jra ̲ [q.v.], Zayd was eleven. His education between these events was of major importance for his career. Already before the Hid̲jra ̲ he acquired Arabic literacy at the midrās or kuttāb [q.v.] of a Jewish group called Māsika; his knowledge of the Hebrew or Syriac script presumably goes back to the same period. Zayd’s first-born son was probably Saʿīd, hence Saʿīd’s mother, Umm D̲ jamīl bt. al-Mud̲jallil ̲ ̲ of the Ḳurays̲h̲ [q.v.], must have been Zayd’s first wife. Widowed in Ethiopia, she arrived at Medina after the conquest of K̲ h̲aybar [q.v.] in 7 A.H. with two small children. Neither of the children was called D̲ jamīl, and it follows that she could have been married twice before ̲ marrying young Zayd. As one of the Prophet’s scribes, Zayd wrote down Ḳurʾān verses as well as letters to “the kings”. Some said that Zayd was the scribe of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, and he was also said to have officiated as ḳāḍī under ʿUmar and ʿUt̲h̲mān. Zayd’s literacy was accompanied by a knowledge of arithmetic: he was a famous expert on the division of inheritances [see farāʾiḍ ] and was considered an authority on calendrical calculations. Abū Bakr instructed him to calculate the k̲h̲ums of the Kinda [q.v.] captives brought to Medina from al-Nud̲jayr ̲ (in Ḥaḍramawt), and Zayd later collected their ransom. After the Battle of the Yarmūk, Zayd divided the spoils, having done the same for the Prophet at K̲ h̲aybar and Ḥunayn [q.v.]. When food supplies sent by ʿUmar’s governor in Egypt were to be distributed, Zayd prepared written orders for the transfer of subsistence (ṣikāk) which were made of papyrus [see ḳirṭās ] and stamped at the bottom; he was the first Muslim to prepare such orders. ‘Ut̲h̲mān appointed him over the treasury (bayt al-māl [q.v.]) after Zayd’s predecessors had resigned because of ʿUt̲h̲mān’s illegal use of state money. In due course, ʿUt̲h̲mān allowed Zayd to appropriate a surplus of more than 100,000 dirhams. However, a pro-ʿUt̲h̲mānī source denies all this: the former officials grew old and were too weak to function; the surplus was of 1,000 dirhams only, and Zayd spent it on construction works in the Prophet’s mosque. When ʿUt̲h̲mān was later besieged in his court, Zayd protected him in defiance of his fellow Anṣār, most of whom supported ʿAlī. Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī [q.v.] accused Zayd of being motivated by the many palm trees which he received from ʿUt̲h̲mān. It should be borne in mind that at the saḳīfa [q.v.], immediately after the Prophet’s death, Zayd—whose first wife was probably of the Ḳurays̲h̲—eloquently supported the political supremacy of the muhād̲ jirūn [q.v.] over the Anṣār. ̲ Zayd was one of the few Anṣār who did not pledge their allegiance to ʿAlī; a pro-S̲h̲īʿī source explained that ʿUt̲h̲mān appointed him over both the dīwān [q.v.] and the treasury. Obviously, Zayd was not a member of ʿAlī’s administration, but at the beginning of Muʿāwiya I's [q.v.] reign we again find him in charge of the dīwān of Medina. Zayd advised Muʿāwiya and his governor in Medina, Marwān b. al-Ḥakam [q.v.], on various legal matters. The dates given for Zayd’s death range from 42/662-3 to 56/675-6. The large amount of gold and silver that he bequeathed had to be cut with a broad iron instrument called mifrāṣ; in addition, he left orchards and estates valued at 100,000 dīnārs, or, alternatively, at 150,000 dīnārs and 700,000 dirhams. Considering Zayd’s humble starting-point, his career during the first half-century of Islam was phenomenal. There is much controversy over the collection of the Ḳurʾān. One thing is, however, certain: when ʿUt̲h̲mān looked for a qualified scholar to oversee the preparation of its official edition, Zayd’s total commitment to the Ḳuras̲h̲ī cause was taken into consideration. (M. Lecker) Bibliography 1. Sources. D̲ h̲ahabī, Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ, ed. al-Arnāwūṭ et al., Beirut 1401/1981 ff., ii, 426-41 Ibn ʿAsākir, Taʾrīk̲h̲ madīnat Dimas̲h̲ḳ, ed. al-ʿAmrawī, Beirut 1415/1995 ff., xix, 295-341 Ibn Manẓūr, Muk̲h̲taṣar taʾrīk̲h̲ Dimas̲h̲ḳ li-Ibn ʿAsākir, ed. R. al-Naḥḥās et al, Damascus 1404/1984 ff., ix, 114-22 2 Ṭabarānī, al-Muʿd̲ jam ̲ al-kabīr, ed. al-Salafī, Cairo 1400/1980 ff., v, 106-63 The relevant entries in the Companion dictionaries Ibn Ḳudāma al-Maḳdisī, al-Istibṣār fī nasab al-ṣaḥāba min al-anṣār, ed. Nuwayhiḍ, Beirut 1392/1972, 69, 71-3 Ibn Ḥubays̲h̲, al-G̲h̲azawāt al-ḍāmina, ed. Zakkār, Beirut 1412/1992, i, 139-40 Yaʿḳūbī, Taʾrīk̲h̲, ii, 177 Diyārbakrī, Taʾrīk̲h̲ al-k̲h̲amīs, Cairo 1283/1866, ii, 267-8 Ibn Ḳutayba, al-Maʿārif ed. ʿUkās̲h̲a, Cairo 1969, 355 Masʿūdī, Murūd̲ j,̲ ed. Pellat, iii, 77 Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Rāzī, Taʾrīk̲h̲ madīnat Ṣanʿāʾ,’ ed. al-ʿAmrī, 2Ṣanʿāʾ 1401/1981, 66-7. 2. Studies. Gesch. des Qor., ii, passim, esp. 54, 56 J. Burton, The collection of the Qurʾān, Cambridge 1977, index A. Neuwirth, Koran, in Grundriβ der arabischen Philologie, ii, Literaturwissenschaft, ed. H. Gätje, Wiesbaden 1987, 96-135, at 101-4 M. Lecker, Zayd b. Thābit, “a Jew with two sidelocks”: Judaism and literacy in pre-Islamic Medina (Yathrib), in JNES, lvi (1997), 259-73. Cite this page Lecker, M., “Zayd b. T̲ h̲ābit”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 02 March 2022 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_8141> First published online: 2012 First print edition: ISBN: 9789004161214, 1960-2007