List of biographies of Muhammad

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This is a chronological listing of biographies of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, from the earliest traditional writers to modern times.

Number of biographies

The literature is extensive: in the Urdu language alone, a scholar from Pakistan in 2024 came up with a bibliography of more than 10,000 titles counting multivolume works as a single book and without taking into account articles, short essays or unpublished manuscripts, with the author also precising that the literature in Arabic is even more important.{{Cite web |last=Parekh |first=Rauf |date=14 October 2024 |title=Literary notes: New bibliography lists 10,000 Urdu books on seerat |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1865129/literary-notes-new-bibliography-lists-10000-urdu-books-on-seerat |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241108084609/https://www.dawn.com/news/1865129/literary-notes-new-bibliography-lists-10000-urdu-books-on-seerat |archive-date=8 November 2024 |website=Dawn News}}

Earliest biographers

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

= 1st century of Hijrah (622–719 CE) =

  • Sahl ibn Abī Ḥathma (d. in Mu'awiya's reign, i.e., 41-60 AH), was a young companion of Muhammad. Parts of his writings on Maghazi are preserved in the Ansāb of al-Baladhuri, the Ṭabaqāt of Ibn Sa'd, and the works of Ibn Jarir al-Tabari and al-Waqidi.{{Cite book| edition = 1st| publisher = King Saud University| author = M. R. Ahmad| title = Al-sīra al-nabawiyya fī ḍawʾ al-maṣādir al-aṣliyya: dirāsa taḥlīliyya| location = Riyadh| year = 1992 | pages=20–34}}
  • Abdullah ibn Abbas (d. 78 AH), a companion of Muhammad, his traditions are found in various works of Hadith and Sīra.
  • Saʿīd ibn Saʿd ibn ʿUbāda al-Khazrajī, another young companion, whose writings have survived in the Musnad of Ibn Hanbal and Abī ʿIwāna, and al-Tabari's Tārīkh.
  • 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 Muhammad. 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. He was a grandson of Abu Bakr and the younger brother of Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr.
  • Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib al-Makhzūmī (d. 94 AH), a famous Tābiʿī and one of the teachers of Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri. His traditions are quoted in the Six major hadith collections, and in the Sīra works of Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, and others.
  • Abū Fiḍāla ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kaʿb ibn Mālik al-Anṣārī (d. 97 AH), his traditions are mentioned by Ibn Ishaq and al-Tabari.
  • Abān ibn Uthmān ibn Affān (d. 101-105 AH), the son of Uthman wrote a small booklet. His traditions are transmitted through Malik ibn Anas in his Muwaṭṭaʾ, the Ṭabaqāt of Ibn Sa'd, and in the histories of al-Tabari and al-Yaʿqūbī.
  • 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.
  • Hammam ibn Munabbih (d. 101 AH/719 CE), author of the Sahifah and a student of Abu Hurayrah.

= 2nd century of Hijrah (720–816 CE) =

  • Al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr (d. 107 AH), another grandson of Abu Bakr. His traditions are mainly found in the works of al-Tabari, al-Balathuri, and al-Waqidi.
  • Wahb ibn Munabbih (d. during 725 to 737, or 114 AH). Several books were ascribed to him but none of them are now existing. Some of his works survive as quotations found in works by Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Hisham, Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī, and others.
  • Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī (d. {{circa|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 the Umayyad 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.
  • Musa ibn ʿUqba, a student of al-Zuhrī, who wrote Kitāb al-Maghāzī. It was lost after 14th century, but two-thirds of the book was rediscovered in 2021 after a manuscript was found.{{Cite encyclopedia | publisher = Brill Academic Publishers| pages = 29–49| last = Raven| first = Wim| title = Sīra and the Qurʾān | encyclopedia = Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān | year = 2006 }}{{cite book |last=Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah |title=The Maghāzī of Sayyidunā Muḥammad |publisher=Imam Ghazali Publishing |year=2024 |isbn=978-1-952306-87-7 |page=46}}
  • Muhammad ibn Ishaq (d. 767 or 761), another student of al-Zuhrī, who collected oral traditions that formed the basis of an important biography of Muhammad. His work survived through that of his editors, most notably Ibn Hisham and Ibn Jarir al-Tabari.
  • Ibn Jurayj (d. 150 AH), has been described as a "contemporary" of Ibn Ishaq and "rival authority based in Mecca"AL-Azraqi, Akhbar Makka, ed. Ferdinand Wustenfelf (Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1858) 65, 1. 16: thumma raja'a ila hadith Ibn Jurayj wa-ibn Ishaq; quoted in book review by Conrad, Lawrence I. of "Making of the Last Prophet: A Reconstruction of the Earliest Biography of Muhammad by Gordon Darnell Newby", in Journal of the American Oriental Society, 113, n.2 258-263
  • Abū Ishāq al-Fazarī (d. 186 AH) wrote Kitāb al-Siyar.Published from Lebanon, Beirut: Mu'assasa al-Risāla, 1987.
  • Abu Ma'shar Najih Al-Madani (d. {{circa|787}})
  • Al-Waqidi, whose surviving work Kitab al-Tarikh wa al-Maghazi (Book of History and Campaigns) has been published.([https://archive.org/details/the-life-of-prophet-waqidis-kitab-al-maghazi-routledge-2011 Online link]).
  • Hisham Ibn Urwah ibn Zubayr, son of Urwah ibn Zubayr, generally quoted traditions from his father but was also a pupil of al-Zuhri.

= 3rd century of Hijrah (817–913 CE) =

= 4th century of Hijrah (914–1010 CE) =

  • Ibn Hibban (d.965) wrote Kitāb al-sīra al-nabawiyya wa akhbār al-khulafāʾ.

= 5th century of Hijrah (1011–1108 CE) =

  • Ibn Abd al-Barr wrote al-Durar fi ikhtisar al-maghazi was-siyar.{{Cite book| publisher = ABC-CLIO| isbn = 978-1-61069-178-9| last1 = Fitzpatrick| first1 = Coeli| last2 = Walker| first2 = Adam Hani| title = Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God [2 volumes]| date = 2014-04-25|page=578,580}}
  • Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani (d. 1038) wrote Dala'il al-Nubuwwa.
  • Al-Bayhaqi (d. 1066), wrote Dala'il al-Nabuwwa (Proof of Prophethood).
  • Al-Baghawi wrote al-Anwar fi Shama'il al-Nabi al-Mukhtar
  • Ibn Hazm wrote Jamawiʿ al-Sīra (The Sira Synopsis), an abridgement of the work of Ibn Abd al-Barr.

= 6th century of Hijrah (1109–1206 CE) =

  • Abu al-Qasim al-Suhayli (d. 1185), a grammarian from Malaga, wrote al-Rawd al-unuf, a commentary on Ibn Hisham's biography explaining the difficult and ambiguous words.

= 7th century of Hijrah (1207–1303 CE) =

  • Al-Kalāʿī of Valencia (d. 1236) wrote a three-volume biography called al-Iktifāʾ. It follows the structure of Ibn Ishaq's sira with additional traditions from various other works.
  • Abdul Mu'min al-Dimyati (d. 705AH/1305CE), wrote the book "al-Mukhtasar fi Sirati Sayyid Khair al-Bashar" but is commonly referred to as Sira of Al-Dimyati.

= 8th century of Hijrah (1304–1400 CE) =

= Others (710–1100 CE) =

{{more citations needed section|date=June 2011}}

  • Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, the husband of Asma bint Abi Bakr.
  • Asim Ibn Umar Ibn Qatada Al-Ansari
  • Ma'mar Ibn Rashid Al-Azdi, pupil of al-Zuhri
  • Abdul Rahman ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Ausi, pupil of al-Zuhri
  • Muhammad ibn Salih ibn Dinar Al-Tammar was a pupil of al-Zuhri and mentor of al-Waqidi.
  • Ya'qub bin Utba Ibn Mughira Ibn Al-Akhnas Ibn Shuraiq al-Thaqafi
  • Ali ibn mujahid Al razi Al kindi.
  • Salama ibn Al-Fadl Al-Abrash Al-Ansari, pupil of Ibn Ishaq.
  • Abu Sa`d al-Naysaburi wrote Sharaf al-Mustafa
  • Faryabi wrote Dala'il al-Nubuwwa

Later writers and biographies (1100–1517 CE)

19th century CE

  • {{cite book | author=Bush, George |author-link=George Bush (biblical scholar) | url=https://archive.org/details/lifemohammed00bushuoft|title=The Life of Mohammed: Founder of the Religion of Islam, and of the Empire of the Saracens | publisher= J. & J. Harper | year=1831 }}
  • Gustav Weil, [http://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/ssg/content/titleinfo/1010167 Mohammed der Prophet, sein Leben und seine Lehre] (Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler'schen Buchhandlung, 1843)
  • Washington Irving, Mahomet and His Successors (1850)
  • Aloys Sprenger, [https://archive.org/details/lifemohammadfro00aloygoog The Life of Mohammad, from Original Sources] (Allahabad: The Presbyterian Mission Press, 1851).
  • William Muir, The Life of Muhammad and History of Islam to the Era of the Hegira (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1858-1861), 4 vols. – several later editions with slightly different titles.
  • Aloys Sprenger, Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad: Nach bisher größtentheils unbenutzten Quellen (Berlin: Nicolai'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1861-1865), 3 vols – a revised 2nd edition was published in 1869.
  • Theodor Nöldeke, [https://archive.org/details/daslebenmuhammed00nluoft Das Leben Muhammed's: Nach den Quellen populär dargestellt] (Hannover: Carl Rümpler, 1863).

Modern biographies (1900 CE – present)

{{anchor|Modern biographies (1900 AD – Present)}} {{anchor|Modern biographies (1900 AD – Present)}}

Biographies missing date of publication

  • Muhammad Alawi al-Maliki wrote Muhammad Rasulallah.
  • Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri wrote Sirah al-Rasul (14 volumes, in Urdu).
  • As'ad Muhammad Sa`id al-Sagharji wrote Muhammad Rasulallah.
  • Yusuf al-Nabhani wrote Fada'il al-Muhammadiyya, al-Anwar al-Muhammadiyya and Shawahid al-Haqq.
  • Shibli Nomani wrote his famous 5 volume book Sirat-un-Nabi in Urdu with the help of his disciple Syed Sulaiman Nadvi. The book was translated in English by M. Tayyib Bakhsh Budayuni: {{ISBN|978-81-7151-282-9}}.
  • Syed Sulaiman Nadvi wrote Muhammad The Ideal Prophet and Muhammad The Prophet Of Peace translated by Rauf Luther.
  • Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi, wrote Muhammad-ur-Rasoolullah in 4 volumes.
  • Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi wrote Muhammad Rasulullah .
  • Naeem Siddiqui wrote Muhammad The Benefactor Of Humanity.
  • Ahmed Deedat wrote Muhammad the Greatest and Muhammad the Natural Successor to Christ.
  • Jamal Badawi wrote Muhammad A Blessing For Mankind, a Short Biography and Commentary.
  • Khalid Masud wrote Hayat e Rasul e Ummi in Urdu (translated as: The Unlettered Prophet by Saadia Malik).[http://www.monthly-renaissance.com/issue/content.aspx?id=226 Preamble to the book]
  • Wahiduddin Khan wrote Prophet of Revolution
  • Syed Shahabuddin Salfi Firdausi wrote Seerat e Badr-ud-Duja
  • Muhammad Ibrahim Mir Sialkoti wrote Seerah Al-Mustafa{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E7avxwEACAAJ|title=40 Ahl-e Hadith Scholars from the Indian Subcontinent|date=2019-07-18|publisher=Independently Published|isbn=978-1-0810-0895-6|pages=224 تا 250|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Allamah Muhammad Ibrahim Mir Sialkoti|url=http://umm-ul-qura.org/2018/01/23/bio-of-allamah-muhammad-ibrahim-mir-sialkoti/}}

See also

References

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