Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar, or simply Ibn Ishaq (Arabic: ابن إسحاق, meaning "the son of Isaac") (died 767, or 761 (Robinson 2003, p. xv)) was an Arab Muslim historian. He collected oral traditions that formed the basis of first biography of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. This biography usually called Sirat Rasul Allah (Life of Allah's Messenger). Photo taken from medieval manuscript by Qotbeddin Shirazi (1236–1311), a Persian Astronomer. ... Events Justinian II re-takes the throne of the Byzantine Empire Cenred succeeds to the throne of Mercia after his uncle Aethelred abdicates to become abbot of Bardney Births Deaths Adamnan, abbot of Iona (b. ... A period of anarchy begins in Bulgaria. ... Emperor Kōnin ascends to the throne of Japan, succeeding Empress Shōtoku. ... Muhammad in a new genre of Islamic calligraphy started in the 17th century by Hafiz Osman. ... Ibn Hisham, Abu Muhammad Abd al-Malik (d. ... Balamis 14th century Persian version of Universal History by al-Tabari Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari 838–923 (father of Jafar, named Muhammad, son of Jarir from the province of Tabaristan, Arabic الطبري), was an author from Persia, one of the earliest, most prominent and famous Persian... Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... This article is about the year 761. ... Languages Arabic and other minority languages Religions Islam, Christianity, Druzism and Judaism An Arab (Arabic: , arabi) is a member of a complexly defined ethnic group who identifies as such on the basis of one or more of either genealogical, political, or linguistic grounds. ... The historiography of early Islam is the study of how various historians have treated the events of the first two centuries of Islamic history. ... Muhammad in a new genre of Islamic calligraphy started in the 17th century by Hafiz Osman. ... Sirah Rasul Allah (Life of the Apostle of God) or Sirat Nabawiyya (Life of the Prophet) (from Arabic سيرة) is the Arabic term used for the various traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad, from which most historical information about his life and the early period of Islam is derived. ...

Life

According to Guillaume (pp. xiii-xiv), Ibn Ishaq was born circa AH 85, or roughly 704 AD, in Medina. He was the grandson of a man, Yasar, who had been captured in one of Khalid ibn al-Walid's campaigns and taken to Medina as a slave. Yasar converted to Islam and was freed. Yasar's son Ishaq was a traditionist, who collected and recounted tales of the past. Muhammad ibn Ishaq was thus carrying on the work of his father.

At the age of thirty, he traveled to the Islamic province of Egypt to attend lectures given by the traditionist Yazid ibn Abu Habib. He later traveled eastwards, towards what is now Iraq. There, the new Abbasid dynasty, having overthrown the Umayyad caliphs, was establishing a new capital at Baghdad. Ibn Ishaq moved to the capital and likely found patrons in the new regime. (Robinson 2003, p. 27) He died in Baghdad in 767CE. Mashriq Dynasties  Maghrib Dynasties  The Abbasid Caliphate Abbasid (Arabic: , ) is the dynastic name generally given to the caliph of Baghdad, the second of the two great Sunni dynasties of the Arab Empire, that overthrew the Umayyad caliphs from all but Spain. ... The Courtyard of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, one of the grandest architectural legacies of the Umayyads. ... Baghdad (Arabic: ) is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate. ...

Work

Ibn Ishaq wrote several works, none of which survive. His collection of traditions about the life of Muhammad survives mainly in two sources:

• an edited copy, or recension, of his work by his student al-Bakka'i, as further edited by Ibn Hisham. Al-Bakka'i's work has perished and only Ibn Hisham's has survived, in copies. (Donner 1998, p. 132)

• an edited copy, or recension, prepared by his student Salama ibn-Fadl al-Ansari. This also has perished, and survives only in the copious extracts to be found in the volumimous historian al-Tabari's. (Donner 1998, p. 132)

• 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". (Donner 1998, p. 132) However, there is some material to be found in al-Tabari that was not preserved by Ibn Hisham. The notorious tradition of the Satanic Verses, in which Muhammad is said to have added his own words to the text of the Qur'an as dictated by an angel and been rebuked, is found only in al-Tabari. Ibn Hisham, Abu Muhammad Abd al-Malik (d. ... The History of the Prophets and Kings (Arabic: تاريخ الرسل والملوك Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk, popularly Tarikh al-Tabari) is a history by Persian author and historian Ibn Jarir al-Tabari (838–923) from the Creation to AD 915, and is renowned for its detail and accuracy concerning Arab and Muslim... For the novel by Salman Rushdie, see The Satanic Verses. ... The History of the Prophets and Kings (Arabic: تاريخ الرسل والملوك Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk, popularly Tarikh al-Tabari) is a history by Persian author and historian Ibn Jarir al-Tabari (838–923) from the Creation to AD 915, and is renowned for its detail and accuracy concerning Arab and Muslim...

The English-language edition of Ibn Ishaq currently used by non-Arabic speakers is the 1955 version by Alfred Guillaume. Guillaume combined Ibn Hisham and those materials in al-Tabari cited as Ibn Ishaq'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).

References

1. ^ Mustafa al-Suqa, Ibrahim al-Ibyari and Abdul-Hafidh Shalabi, Tahqiq Kitab Sirah an-Nabawiyyah, Dar Ihya al-Turath, p. 20
2. ^ Ibid, p. 20

• Donner, Fred -- Narratives of Islamic Origins, The Darwin Press, 1998
• Guillaume, A. --The Life of Muhammad, Oxford University Press, 1955, reprinted in 2003. ISBN 0-19-636033-1
• Robinson, Chase -- Islamic Historiography, Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 0521588138
• Wansbrough, John --Quranic Studies, , 1977, as reprinted in 2004, ISBN 0197135889
• Wansbrough, John -- The Sectarian Milieu, , 1978, as reprinted in 2005, ISBN 019713596X