In historical ties of emancipation, one side concerns the person who freed and the other the person who was freed. The designation mawlā can be used in descriptions from either side, and sometimes in wider affiliation to a household or group.
Min aʿlā wa-min asfal refers to the upper and lower sides of such an affiliation.
Reading “mawlā of so-and-so” in a chain does not, by itself, establish biological descent, present servitude or tribal lineage. The precise relation must be recovered from fuller biographies and historical context.
Distinguishing genealogical descent from clientage can be decisive when identifying narrators with similar names.