Al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah (Ibn Ishaq)

Ibn Isḥaq collected oral traditions about the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. These traditions, which he orally dictated to his pupils,Raven, Wim, Sīra and the Qurʾān – Ibn Isḥāq and his editors, Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an. Ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe. Vol. 5. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, 2006. pp 29-51. are now known collectively as Sīrat Rasūl Allāh ({{langx|ar|سيرة رسول الله}} "Life of the Messenger of God"). His work is entirely lost and survives only in the following sources:

• Two edited copies, or recensions, of his work by Ibn Hisham based on the work of al-Bakka'i survive. Al-Bakka'i's work has perished and only ibn Hisham's has survived, in copies. Two such copies exist, the latter of the two is more heavily edited.{{Sfn|Donner|1998|p=132}} Ibn Hisham edited out of his work "things which it is disgraceful to discuss; matters which would distress certain people; and such reports as al-Bakka'i told me he could not accept as trustworthy."{{sfn|Guillaume|1955|p=691}}
• An edited copy, or recension, prepared by his student Salamah ibn Fadl al-Ansari survives only in the copious extracts to be found in the voluminous History of the Prophets and Kings by Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari.{{Sfn|Donner|1998|p=132}}{{harvc|author1=W. Montgomery Watt |author2=M. V. McDonald |name-list-style=and |c=Translator's Forward |pages=xi–xiv |in=The History of al-Tabari, Volume VI |year=1988 |ps=. Regarding al-Tabari's narratives of Muhammad, the translators state, "The earliest and most important of these sources was Ibn Ishaq, whose book on the Prophet is usually known as the Sirah".}}{{efn|Discussed here are Ibn Ishaq and his Sirah, the various recensions of it, Guillaume's translation, and Ibn Hisham.}}
• Fragments of several other recensions. Guillaume lists them on p. xxx of his preface, but regards most of them as so fragmentary as to be of little worth.

According to Donner, the material in ibn Hisham and al-Tabari is "virtually the same".{{Sfn|Donner|1998|p=132}} However, there is some material to be found in al-Tabari that was not preserved by ibn Hisham. For example, al-Tabari includes the controversial episode of the Satanic Verses, while ibn Hisham does not.{{sfn|Guillaume|1955|pp=165–167}}{{sfn|The History of al-Tabari, Volume VI|1988|pp=107–112}}

Following the publication of previously unknown fragments of ibn Isḥaq's traditions, recent scholarship suggests that ibn Isḥaq did not commit to writing any of the traditions now extant, but they were narrated orally to his transmitters. These new texts, found in accounts by Salama al-Ḥarranī and Yūnus ibn Bukayr, were hitherto unknown and contain versions different from those found in other works.{{Cite encyclopedia |edition=2nd |publisher=Brill Academic Publishers |volume=9 |pages=660–663 |last=Raven |first=W. |title=SĪRA |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam |isbn=978-90-04-10422-8| year=1997}}

{{main|Al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah (Ibn Hisham)}}

The original text of the Sīrat Rasūl Allāh by Ibn Ishaq did not survive. Yet it was one of the earliest substantial biographies of Muhammad. However, much of the original text was copied over into a work of his own by Ibn Hisham (Basra; Fustat, died 833 AD, 218 AH).{{efn|Dates and places, and discussions, re Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham in {{harvp|Guillaume|1955|pp=xiii & xli}}.}}

Ibn Hisham also "abbreviated, annotated, and sometimes altered" the text of Ibn Ishaq, according to {{harvp|Guillaume|1955|p=xvii}}. Interpolations made by Ibn Hisham are said to be recognizable and can be deleted, leaving as a remainder, a so-called "edited" version of Ibn Ishaq's original text (otherwise lost). In addition, {{harvp|Guillaume|1955|p=xxxi}} points out that Ibn Hisham's version omits various narratives in the text which were given by al-Tabari in his History.{{efn|Al-Tabari (839–923) wrote his History in Arabic: Ta'rikh al-rusul wa'l-muluk (Eng: History of Prophets and Kings). A 39-volume translation was published by State University of New York (SUNY) as The History of al-Tabari; volumes six to nine concern the life of Muhammad.}}Omitted by Ibn Hisham and found in al-Tabari are, e.g., at 1192 ({{harvp|The History of al-Tabari, Volume VI|1988|pp=107–112}}), and at 1341 ({{harvp|The History of al-Tabari, Volume VII|1987|pp=69–73}}). In these passages al-Tabari expressly cites Ibn Ishaq as a source.E.g., al-Tabari, at 1134 ({{harvp|The History of al-Tabari, Volume VI|1988|p=56}}).{{efn|See Original versions, survival above, esp. re Salamah ibn Fadl al-Ansari. Cf, {{harvp|Guillaume|1955|p=xvii}}.}}

Thus can be reconstructed an 'improved' "edited" text, i.e., by distinguishing or removing Ibn Hisham's additions, and by adding from al-Tabari passages attributed to Ibn Ishaq. Yet the result's degree of approximation to Ibn Ishaq's original text can only be conjectured. Such a reconstruction is available, e.g., in Guillaume's translation.{{efn|Ibn Hisham's 'narrative' additions and his comments are removed from the text and isolated in a separate section,{{sfn|Guillaume|1955|pp=691–798, note 3}} while Ibn Hisham's philological additions are evidently omitted.{{sfn|Guillaume|1955|p=xli}}}} Here, Ibn Ishaq's introductory chapters describe pre-Islamic Arabia, before he then commences with the narratives surrounding the life of Muhammad (in {{harvp|Guillaume|1955|pp=109–690}}).

In 1864 the Heidelberg professor Gustav Weil published an annotated German translation in two volumes. Several decades later the Hungarian scholar Edward Rehatsek prepared an English translation, but it was not published until over a half-century later.See bibliography.{{fcn|date=February 2022}}

The best-known translation in a Western language is Alfred Guillaume's 1955 English translation, but some have questioned the reliability of this translation.{{Cite book|last=Humphreys|first=R. Stephen |title=Islamic History: A Framework for Inquiry|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-691-00856-1|edition=Revised|page=78}}{{Cite book|last=Tibawi|first=Abdul Latif|title=Ibn Isḥāq's Sīra, a critique of Guillaume's English translation: the life of Muhammad|publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1956|author-link=Abdul Latif Tibawi}} In it Guillaume combined ibn Hisham and those materials in al-Tabari cited as ibn Isḥaq's whenever they differed or added to ibn Hisham, believing that in so doing he was restoring a lost work. The extracts from al-Tabari are clearly marked, although sometimes it is difficult to distinguish them from the main text (only a capital "T" is used).{{sfn|Guillaume|1955|pp=11–12}}

• Prophetic biography
• List of biographies of Muhammad
• List of Islamic scholars
• List of Sunni books

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book |publisher=Darwin Press |isbn=978-0-87850-127-4 |last=Donner |first=Fred McGraw |title=Narratives of Islamic origins: the beginnings of Islamic historical writing |year=1998}}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Guillaume |editor-first=Alfred |title=The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ishāq's Sīrat Rasūl Allāh |date=1955 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dIdqkgAACAAJ |language=en}}
• {{cite book |title=The history of al-Tabari |volume=6 - Muhammad at Mecca |date=1988 |publisher=State University of New York Press |location=Albany, N.Y. |isbn=0-88706-707-7 |ref=CITEREFThe_History_of_al-Tabari,_Volume_VI1988}}
• {{cite book |title=The history of al-Tabari |volume=7 - The foundation of the community |date=1987 |publisher=State University of New York Press |location=Albany, N.Y. |isbn=0-88706-345-4 |ref=CITEREFThe_History_of_al-Tabari,_Volume_VII1987}}

Category:Biographies of Muhammad

Category:Sunni literature

Category:8th-century Arabic-language books