Thursday, August 23, 2012

List of Biographies of Prophet Muhammad

It is commonly said that the earliest biography of Prophet Muhamamd (p) was written 120 years after his death at that biography is Ibn Ishaq. This is false. Below is a list of very early biographies of Prophet Muhammad, some written by his own disciples (companions):

To see very early hadith books see here http://www.letmeturnthetables.com/2011/04/hadith-compilations-by-companions-of.html and here http://www.letmeturnthetables.com/2012/05/documentation-sunnah-hadith-begin-early.html


The following is a list of the earliest known Hadith collectors who specialized in collecting Sīra and Maghāzī reports.

[edit]7th and early 8th century (1st century of Hijra)

  • Saʿīd ibn Saʿd ibn ʿUbāda al-Khazrajī, another young companion, his writings have survived in the Musnad of Ibn Hanbal and Abī ʿIwāna, and the Tārīkh of al-Tabari.[1]
  • ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. 713). He wrote letters replying to inquiries of the Umayyad caliphs, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan and al-Walid I, involving questions about certain events that happened in the time of the Prophet. Since Abd al-Malik did not appreciate the maghāzī literature, these letters were not written in story form. He is not known to have written any books on the subject.[2] He was a grandson of Abu Bakr and the younger brother of Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr.
  • Abū Fiḍāla ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kaʿb ibn Mālik al-Anṣārī (d. 97 AH), his traditions were mentioned in Ibn Ishaq and al-Tabari.[1]
  • ʿĀmir ibn Sharāḥīl al-Shaʿbī (d. 103 AH), his traditions were transmitted through Abu Isḥāq al-Subaiʿī, Saʿīd ibn Masrūq al-Thawrī, al-Aʿmash, Qatāda, Mujālid ibn Saʿīd, and others.[1]

[edit]8th and early 9th century (2nd century of Hijra)

  • Al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr (d. 107 AH), another grandson of Abu Bakr. His traditions are mainly found in Tabari, Al-Balathuri, and al-Waqidi.[1]
  • Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī (d. c. 737), a central figure in sīra literature, who collected both ahadith and akhbār. His akhbār also contain chains of transmissions, or isnad. He was sponsored by theUmayyad court and asked to write two books, one on genealogy and another on maghāzī. The first was canceled and the one about maghāzī is either not extant or has never been written.[2]
  • Musa ibn ʿUqba, a student of al-Zuhrī, and wrote Kitāb al-Maghāzī, a notebook used to teach his students; now lost. Some of his traditions have been preserved, although their attribution to him is disputed.[2]

[edit]

Others (710 AD- 921 AD)

  • Ya'qub bin Utba Ibn Mughira Ibn Al-Akhnas Ibn Shuraiq Al-Thaqafi
  • Abu Ma'shar Najih Al-Madani.

Later writers and biographies (1100 AD- 1517 AD)



  1. a b c d e f g h i M. R. Ahmad (1992). Al-sīra al-nabawiyya fī ḍawʾ al-maṣādir al-aṣliyya: dirāsa taḥlīliyya (1st ed.). Riyadh: King Saud University. pp. 20–34.
  2. a b c d e Raven, Wim (2006). "Sīra and the Qurʾān". Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān. Brill Academic Publishers. pp. 29–49.

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