{"id":5,"date":"2023-05-26T12:13:09","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T12:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/?p=5"},"modified":"2024-01-06T23:02:49","modified_gmt":"2024-01-06T23:02:49","slug":"chapter-1","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/chapter\/chapter-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 2: Biography of the Prophet Muhammad"},"content":{"raw":"Since there are limitations on what we can learn about the life of Muhammad from primary sources, what can we learn from the secondary sources?\u00a0 The most prominent, and earliest remaining biography of the Prophet is S<\/em>\u012brat Ras<\/em>\u016bl All<\/em>\u0101h<\/em> (\"Life of the Messenger of God\") by Muhammad ibn Ishaq.\u00a0 Born in Medina (the city in which the first Islamic community was established) in 704 CE, Ibn Ishaq seems to have followed in the footsteps of his father, who was a transmitter of oral reports (hadith) about the life, words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad.\u00a0 When he was in his thirties, Ibn Ishaq got into a conflict with the famous early Muslim jurist, Malik ibn Anas.\u00a0 He eventually left Medina and traveled northeast, where he settled in Baghdad, the newly established capital of the Abbasid dynasty.\u00a0 Based on his reputation as a historian, Ibn Ishaq gained employment from the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur to write a history of the world dating back to Adam (believed by Muslims, Christians and Jews to be the first created human being).\u00a0 The book that he wrote is said to have been housed in the caliph's library in Baghdad, however it was lost to posterity when the Mongols destroyed the city in 1258.\u00a0 Ibn Ishaq himself died in Baghdad in 767 CE.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, we do not have a copy of the original volume completed by Ibn Ishaq.\u00a0 Instead, what we have is a version of S<\/em>\u012brat Ras<\/em>\u016bl All<\/em>\u0101h<\/em> that was edited by a later scholar, Ibn Hisham, who died in 833 CE.\u00a0 This scholar acknowledged in his text that he had edited out portions of Ibn Ishaq's original work that he (Ibn Hisham) considered to be \"disgraceful to discuss\" or which he felt could not be demonstrated to have derived from authenticated traditions.\u00a0 What remains of Ibn Ishaq's account is a collection of stories about the Prophet Muhammad that he gathered from oral transmitters and arranged chronologically into the form of a biography.\u00a0 In some cases, Ibn Ishaq included multiple accounts of the same event, indicating which account he found to be most reliable or, if he didn't have an opinion on which was more reliable, he would insert the phrase \"God knows the truth.\"\u00a0 Ibn Ishaq's work was critiqued by early Muslim scholars, some of whom accused him of being influenced by early Shi'ite views, or for including forged poems or accounts from suspect narrators.\u00a0 Despite these criticisms, the account by Ibn Ishaq remains the most widely accepted narrative of the Prophet's life.\r\n\r\nThe excerpt linked below comes from an English translation of S<\/em>\u012brat Ras<\/em>\u016bl All<\/em>\u0101h<\/em> entitled The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah.[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em>\u00a0 The book was published in 1955 by Alfred Guillaume, who combined Ibn Hisham's text with excerpts from Ibn Ishaq's account included in the works of other early Muslim historians.\u00a0 In particular, Guillaume added several passages from the history of Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (d. 923 CE), who included excerpts from Ibn Ishaq not extent in the Ibn Hisham text, most notably the controversial account about \"the Satanic verses.\" \u00a0\u00a0Guillaume's translation runs to 815 pages, but the following 18 page excerpt is limited to stories from the Prophet's early life, culminating with the initial revelation he received in the cave of Hira, in the mountains near Mecca.\r\n\r\nWhen you read the following account, ask yourself these questions:\u00a0 How is the early life of the Prophet Muhammad portrayed in these stories?\u00a0 What do they tell you about how he was viewed by early Muslims?\r\n
\r\n
\r\n\r\n[1]<\/a> Alfred Guillaume, editor and translator, The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah<\/em> with Introduction and Notes<\/em> (Oxford University Press, 1955)\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nExcerpts from\u00a0Sirat Rasul Allah\u00a0by Muhammad Ibn Ishaq (pdf)<\/a>\r\n\r\nExcerts from Sirat Rasul Allah by Muhammad Ibn Ishaq (Word document)<\/a>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_153\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"800\"]\"\u201cMuhammad, \u201cMuhammad, the Messenger of God\u201d inscribed on the gates of the Prophet\u2019s Mosque in Medina. Source https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Dark_vignette_Al-Masjid_AL-Nabawi_Door800x600x300.jpg.
By Aisha Abdel - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=41950434[\/caption]","rendered":"

Since there are limitations on what we can learn about the life of Muhammad from primary sources, what can we learn from the secondary sources?\u00a0 The most prominent, and earliest remaining biography of the Prophet is S<\/em>\u012brat Ras<\/em>\u016bl All<\/em>\u0101h<\/em> (“Life of the Messenger of God”) by Muhammad ibn Ishaq.\u00a0 Born in Medina (the city in which the first Islamic community was established) in 704 CE, Ibn Ishaq seems to have followed in the footsteps of his father, who was a transmitter of oral reports (hadith) about the life, words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad.\u00a0 When he was in his thirties, Ibn Ishaq got into a conflict with the famous early Muslim jurist, Malik ibn Anas.\u00a0 He eventually left Medina and traveled northeast, where he settled in Baghdad, the newly established capital of the Abbasid dynasty.\u00a0 Based on his reputation as a historian, Ibn Ishaq gained employment from the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur to write a history of the world dating back to Adam (believed by Muslims, Christians and Jews to be the first created human being).\u00a0 The book that he wrote is said to have been housed in the caliph’s library in Baghdad, however it was lost to posterity when the Mongols destroyed the city in 1258.\u00a0 Ibn Ishaq himself died in Baghdad in 767 CE.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we do not have a copy of the original volume completed by Ibn Ishaq.\u00a0 Instead, what we have is a version of S<\/em>\u012brat Ras<\/em>\u016bl All<\/em>\u0101h<\/em> that was edited by a later scholar, Ibn Hisham, who died in 833 CE.\u00a0 This scholar acknowledged in his text that he had edited out portions of Ibn Ishaq’s original work that he (Ibn Hisham) considered to be “disgraceful to discuss” or which he felt could not be demonstrated to have derived from authenticated traditions.\u00a0 What remains of Ibn Ishaq’s account is a collection of stories about the Prophet Muhammad that he gathered from oral transmitters and arranged chronologically into the form of a biography.\u00a0 In some cases, Ibn Ishaq included multiple accounts of the same event, indicating which account he found to be most reliable or, if he didn’t have an opinion on which was more reliable, he would insert the phrase “God knows the truth.”\u00a0 Ibn Ishaq’s work was critiqued by early Muslim scholars, some of whom accused him of being influenced by early Shi’ite views, or for including forged poems or accounts from suspect narrators.\u00a0 Despite these criticisms, the account by Ibn Ishaq remains the most widely accepted narrative of the Prophet’s life.<\/p>\n

The excerpt linked below comes from an English translation of S<\/em>\u012brat Ras<\/em>\u016bl All<\/em>\u0101h<\/em> entitled The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah.[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em>\u00a0 The book was published in 1955 by Alfred Guillaume, who combined Ibn Hisham’s text with excerpts from Ibn Ishaq’s account included in the works of other early Muslim historians.\u00a0 In particular, Guillaume added several passages from the history of Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (d. 923 CE), who included excerpts from Ibn Ishaq not extent in the Ibn Hisham text, most notably the controversial account about “the Satanic verses.” \u00a0\u00a0Guillaume’s translation runs to 815 pages, but the following 18 page excerpt is limited to stories from the Prophet’s early life, culminating with the initial revelation he received in the cave of Hira, in the mountains near Mecca.<\/p>\n

When you read the following account, ask yourself these questions:\u00a0 How is the early life of the Prophet Muhammad portrayed in these stories?\u00a0 What do they tell you about how he was viewed by early Muslims?<\/p>\n

\n
\n

[1]<\/a> Alfred Guillaume, editor and translator, The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah<\/em> with Introduction and Notes<\/em> (Oxford University Press, 1955)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Excerpts from\u00a0Sirat Rasul Allah\u00a0by Muhammad Ibn Ishaq (pdf)<\/a><\/p>\n

Excerts from Sirat Rasul Allah by Muhammad Ibn Ishaq (Word document)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\u201cMuhammad,
\u201cMuhammad, the Messenger of God\u201d inscribed on the gates of the Prophet\u2019s Mosque in Medina. Source https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Dark_vignette_Al-Masjid_AL-Nabawi_Door800x600x300.jpg.
By Aisha Abdel – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=41950434<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[47],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-5","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-standard"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/5\/revisions\/228"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/5\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}