'Ata Ibn Abi Rabah (645–733)

Nubian teacher

‘Ata ibn Abi Rabah was a highly respected legal adviser and teacher at Mecca (Makkah) during the first century of Islam. He may have specialized in the rites of pilgrimage, a practice incumbent on all Muslims. Of Nubian descent, he was described as “black in colour, blind of an eye, flat-nosed, having the use of only one arm, lame of a leg, and woollyhaired; when advanced in life he lost the use of his sight” (Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary 1842–1871). These features would have been socially disadvantageous in Arabia, yet they were outweighed by the fact that his knowledge of law, and of the traditions of the prophet Muhammad, came directly from several of the companions of Muhammad.