Muḥammad ibn Tamëm ibn TammÃÂm al-Tamëmë (; died 945) more commonly known as Abu al-Arab (; ) was a 10th-century Arab Muslim historian, poet, traditionist and faqih of the Maliki school. His most celebrated work is Tabaqat 'Ulama Ifriqiya () which include numerous scholars of his time.
Abu al-Arab's year of birth is unknown, though he most probably was born between 864 and 873 in the city of Kayrawan, the cultural center of Ifriqiya (corresponds to modern-day Tunisia), which at the time was under the control of the Fatimid Caliphate. He belonged to a noble Arab family of governors. His great-grandfather held the governorship of Tunis and he also successfully managed to seize control of Kayrawan in the year 799. Abu al-Arab studied under a number of scholars who themselves learned from the renowned Kayrawani jurist Sahnun (d. 854/55), and he wrote a detailed account of Sahnun's life. Sequentially, Abu al-Arab devoted his time to teaching in Kayrawan, his most notable student was Ibn Abi Zayd al-Kayrawani (d. 996). Abu al-Arab participated in Abu Yazid's revolt against the Fatimids, eventually he was imprisoned. A few years later, he died in 945.
Abu al-Arab relied also on the work of Issa ibn Abi al-Mouhajir for his writings about Ifriqiya.
According to al-Zirkili, Abu al-Arab works consist of 3,000 books which are mostly lost.