Jabir ibn Zayd

Jabir ibn Zayd, born in the village of Firaq near modern Nizwa in Oman, was an Islamic scholar and theologian regarded as the first imam and one of the founding figures of Ibadi Islam, whose distinct legal tradition traces its founding to him. A member of the Tabi'un, the generation of Muslims following the Prophet's own companions, he studied under Muhammad's widow Aisha and his cousin Abd Allah ibn Abbas, and became the most commonly cited transmitter in the Ibadi hadith collection Jami' al-Sahih. His relationship with the Umayyad governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, deteriorated after he ordered the execution of one of the governor's spies, an episode that led to the imprisonment and exile of Ibadis to Oman. He is well respected by both Ibadi and Sunni scholars, holding a prestige compared to that of the Sunni scholar Hasan of Basra.