Tabaqat
Tabaqat (Arabic: طبقات ṭabaqāt) is a genre of Islamic biographical literature that is organized according to the century in which the notable individuals (such as scholars, poets, etc.)The ṭabaqāt writings depict the past of a particular tradition of religious affiliation or scholarship and follows a chronological parameter that stretch from an authoritative starting-point to the generation (ṭabaqah) immediately preceding the assumed author.[3] The Tabaqat literature were written as tools to assist the muhaddiths in their efforts to classify hadith transmitters and to determine the quality of particular isnads.Kitab Tabaqat al-Mutazilah (concerned with theologians of the Mutazilite school) by Ahmad bin Yahya al-Murtada, Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kabīr (about the companions of the Prophet and their successors) by Ibn Sa'd and - more recently - Tabaghat Aa'lam Al-Shia (about famous Shia scholars] by Agha Bozorg Tehrani.The case of Ibrahim Hafsi's compendium of works, which are based on the ṭabaqāt historiographical framework, also demonstrate how the genre is applied in various fields in the Arabo-Islamic[5] civilization and religious disciplines.