Ḥamza ibn al-Qāsim, known by his kunyā Abū Yaʿlā, was a scholar and hadith transmitter of the third and fourth Islamic centuries, descended from al-ʿAbbās ibn…
Ḥamza ibn al-Qāsim, known by his kunyā Abū Yaʿlā, was a scholar and hadith transmitter of the third and fourth Islamic centuries, descended from al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib — the martyr of Karbala. He was born in the latter part of the second Islamic century and died around 352 AH. He was widely regarded as a man of learning, piety, and reliability. Al-Najāshī records him in his Rijāl with the highest praise, describing him as trustworthy and of great standing, and noting his several authored works — including a book on narrators from Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, a treatise on al-Tawḥīd , and a book on al-Ziyārāt wa al-Manāsik . He is also cited by al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī and al-Sayyid al-Khūʾī among the reliable scholars of his generation. He died in the Ḥilla area of central Iraq and was buried in what is now the Madḥatiyya district of Babylon Governorate. The entire district — Qadha al-Ḥamza — takes its name from him, his maqām forming the spiritual heart around which the town grew over the centuries. He is distinguished in popular usage as al-Ḥamza al-Gharbī — the Western Ḥamza — to differentiate him from an unrelated maqām of a different figure to the east.