As THE FIRST among the tābi‘ūn to be known as an especial authority on maghāzī we must name Abān, son of the caliph ‘Uthmān and of Umm 'Amrbint Jundab. He cannot have been born much later than the year AH 20 since in the year 36 he was old enough to take part in the [537] campaign that ‘Ā’isha, Ṭalḥa and al-Zubayr undertook in order to avenge the murder of 'Uthman (in AH 35); in the course of the expedition he was deputedascertain the decision of ‘Ā’isha as to the fate of a prisoner.In the following four decades he seems to have played no part in politics, till in AH 75 the caliph ‘Abd al-Malik appointed him governor of Medina.The initiative in this appointment did not originate with the caliph, however, but resulted from the action of Abān’s predecessor who, when he wished to pay a visit to the court of Damascus, without first obtaining the caliph’s consent, had left him as his locum tenens on his own authority.Aban held the position of a governor of Medina for seven years till in AH 83 ‘Abd al- Malik deprived him of the post. During his time of office he was regularly entrusted by the caliph with the leadership of the ḥajj, but also when, in AH 81, on account of war troubles, the caliph’s order failed to come and the governor of Mecca wished to secure the honour of the leadership of the ḥajj for himself, Aban had no difficulty in maintaining his rights on the ground of his origin and by the support of his relations. During his term of office some respected men like Jābir ibn ‘Abd Allāh, the Companion of the Prophet; Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafīya, the son, and ‘Abd Allāh ibn Ja‘far, the nephew of ‘Alī, died in Medina; and on each occasion Aban performed the funeral service.Otherwise, of his official dealings we hear not much more than that he instated a new qāḍī,punished false coiners, and increased the measure of the bushel.

The data for the year of his death—one year before his death he had a paralytic stroke—are defective. Al-Bukhārī in the Ta'rīkh [al-ṣaghīr] puts it in the time of al-Walīd (AH 86-96), Ibn Sa‘d in that of Yazīd II (AH 101-105), some put it at the very end of the latter reign (AH 105).