487 Thus he was the first ruler for whom the books were...

487 Thus he was the first ruler for whom the books were translated from other languages into Arabic. But the attention he gave for the hadith, collecting and committing it to writing was so extreme, to the extent that it was said to him: Is there any of the worldly pleasures you haven't got? He replied: Only one trait is left, that is to sit on a bench and be surrounded by men of hadith. And it was him who asked Malik ibn Anas to compile the book al-Muwatta’, according to some narrations.

Al-Sawli says: Al-Mansur was the most knowledgeable of his time in hadith and genealogy. No wonder then to see the number of men of hadith increasing during the reign of al-Mansur, or to see the ulama’ having stronger desire to seeking the Messenger's traditions and sayings or collecting and writing them. Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz is reported to have said: The sultan (ruler) is like the market to which brought what should be spent in it...

if he be righteous righteousness would be brought to him, and if he be debauchee their immorality would be brought to him. 488 Ibn Tughri Barada, in chronicles of the year 143, said the following: Al-Dhahabi said: In this age (year 143 H.) the Muslim ulama’ embarked on writing down the hadith, fiqh and tafsir (exegesis). Ibn Jarih 489 prepared several compilations in Makkah (he died in 150 H), while Sa'id ibn Abi Urubah (d. 156 H.) and Hammad ibn Salamah (d.167H.) compiled books in al-Basrah.

Abu Hanifah (d. 150 H). compiled books on fiqh and qiyas (analogy) in Kufah, al-Awza'i (d. 156 or 157) in the Sham, Malik (d.179) compiled al-Muwatta’ in al-Madinah, Ibn Ishaq compiled al-Maghazi (d.151) and Mu'ammar (d.153) compiled in Yemen and Sufyan al-Thawri (d.161) compiled Kitab al-Jami’ in al-Kufah.

After a short time Hisham 490 (d.188) compiled his books beside al-Layth ibn Sa'd (d.175), Abd Allah ibn Luhay'ah (d.174), then Ibn al-Mubarak (d.181), al-Qadi Abu Yusuf Ya'qub (d.182) and Ibn Wahb (d.197). In that age, knowledge was increasingly classified and written, with many books on Arabic grammar and language, history and public episodes.

Before this age, all the ulama’ — in another narration the imams — used to speak of what they learnt by heart narrating knowledge from disarranged suhuf (books)." Here ends al-Dhahabi's speech. 491 Due to the fact that they were altogether lived contemporaneously in one age, it is unknown certainly which one of them superseded the others in tadwin.