Birth and Early Life of Imam Ibn Mājah

He was born in 209 AH, corresponding to 824 CE. Yāqūt ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Ḥamawī reports from Jaʿfar ibn Idrīs in his “Tārīkh al-Qazwīn” that: “Abū ʿAbdullāh died in 273 AH, and his statement is: I was born in the year 209 AH.” Although the details of Imam Ibn Mājah’s childhood remain veiled in obscurity, it appears that, following the common custom of the time, he completed his basic education and then turned his attention to the science of Hadith. His initial studies in this discipline began in his own city, which by that time had become a flourishing center of Hadith scholarship.