Muḥammad ibn IsḥÄq ibn YasÄr ibn KhiyÄr (/ɪËÊÉ'Ëk/; according to some sources, ibn KhabbÄr, or KÅ«mÄn, or KÅ«tÄn, Arabic: Ù Ø٠د ب٠إسØا٠ب٠Ùسار ب٠خÙارâ, or simply ibn Isḥaq, اب٠إسØاÙ, meaning "the son of Isaac"; died 767 or 761) was an Arab Muslim historian and hagiographer. Ibn Ishaq collected oral traditions that formed the basis of an important biography of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Life
<br>Born in Medina about the year A.H. 85 (704 A.D), ibn Isḥaq was the grandson of a Christian man of Kufa (in southern Iraq), by the name of YasÄr. YasÄr had been captured in one of Khalid ibn al-Walid's campaigns, taken to Medina and became the slave of Qays ibn Makhrama ibn al-Muá¹á¹alib ibn Ê¿Abd ManÄf ibn Quá¹£ayy. Having accepted Islam, YasÄr was manumitted and became his mawlÄ (client), thus acquiring the nisbat al-Muá¹á¹alibÄ«. YasÄr's three sons, MÅ«sÄ, Ê¿Abd al-RaḥmÄn, and IsḥÄq, were all known as transmitters of akhbÄr, who collected and recounted tales of the past. IsḥÄq married the daughter of another mawlÄ and from this marriage ibn IsḥÄq was born.
There are no details of IsḥÄq's early life, but in view of the family nature of early akhbÄr and hadith transmission, it was natural that he should follow in their footsteps. He was also influenced by the work of ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, who praised the young ibn Ishaq for his knowledge of maghÄzÄ« (literally, stories of military expeditions). Around the age of 30, ibn Isḥaq arrived in Alexandria and studied under YazÄ«d ibn AbÄ« ḤabÄ«b. After his return to Medina, based on one account, he was ordered out of Medina for relating a false hadith from a woman he did not meet (FÄá¹ima bint al-Mundhir, wife of HishÄm ibn Ê¿Urwa). But those who defended him, like Sufyan ibn `Uyaynah, stated that Ibn Ishaq told them that he did meet her. Also ibn Ishaq disputed with the young Malik ibn Anas, famous for the Maliki School of Fiqh. Leaving Medina (or forced to leave), he traveled eastwards towards what is now Iraq, stopping in Kufa, also al-JazÄ«ra, and into Iran as far as Ray, before returning west. Eventually he settled in Baghdad. There, the new Abbasid dynasty, having overthrown the Umayyad caliphs, was establishing a new capital.
Ibn Isḥaq moved to the capital and found patrons in the new regime. He became a tutor employed by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur, who commisssioned him to write an all-encompassing history book starting from the creation of Adam to the present day, known as "al-Mubtadaʾ wa al-BaÊ¿th wa al-MaghÄzÄ«" (lit. "In the Beginning, the mission [of Muhammad], and the expeditions"). It was kept in the court library of Baghdad. Part of this work contains the Sîrah or biography of the Prophet, the rest was once considered a lost work, but substantial fragments of it survived. He died in Baghdad around A.H. 150-159.
Biography of Muhammad
Original versions, survival
Ibn Isḥaq collected oral traditions about the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. These traditions, which he orally dictated to his pupils, are now known collectively as SÄ«ratu RasÅ«li l-LÄh (Arabic: سÙرة رسÙ٠اÙÙÙâ "Life of the Messenger of God") and survive mainly in the following sources:
- An edited copy, or recension, of his work by his student al-Bakka'i, which was further edited by ibn Hisham. Al-Bakka'i's work has perished and only ibn Hisham's has survived, in copies.
- An edited copy, or recension, prepared by his student Salamah ibn Fadl al-Ansari. This also has perished, and survives only in the copious extracts to be found in the voluminous History of the Prophets and Kings by Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari.
- 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". 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.
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.
Reconstruction of the text
The original text of the SÄ«rat RasÅ«l AllÄh by Ibn Ishaq did not survive. Yet it was one of the earliest substantial biographies of Muhammad. Fortunately, as noted above, much of the original text was copied over into a work of his own by Ibn Hisham (Basra; Fustat c. 218 A.H.).
Ibn Hisham also "abbreviated, annotated, and sometimes altered" the text of Ibn Ishaq, according to Guillaume (at 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, Guillaume (at xxxi) points out that Ibn Hisham's version omits various narratives in the text which were given by al-Tabari in his History. In these passages al-Tabari expressly cites Ibn Ishaq as a source.
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. Here, Ibn Ishaq's introductory chapters describe pre-Islamic Arabia, before he then commences with the narratives surrounding the life of Muhammad (in Guillaume at 109-690).
Views of his SÄ«rat RasÅ«l AllÄh
Notable scholars like the jurist Ahmad ibn Hanbal appreciated his efforts in collecting sÄ«ra narratives and accepted him on maghÄzÄ«, despite having reservations on his methods on matters of fiqh. Ibn Ishaq also influenced later sÄ«ra writers like Ibn HishÄm and Ibn Sayyid al-NÄs. Other scholars, like Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya, made use of his chronological ordering of events.
The most widely discussed criticism of his sÄ«ra was that of his contemporary MÄlik ibn Anas. MÄlik rejected the stories of Muhammad and the Jews of Medina on the ground that they were taken solely based on accounts by sons of Jewish converts. These same stories have also been denounced as "odd tales" (gharÄʾib) later by ibn Hajar al-Asqalani. MÄlik and others also thought that ibn IsḥÄq exhibited Qadari tendencies, had a preference for Ali (Guillaume also found evidence of this, p.xxii,xxiv), and relied too heavily on what were later called the IsrÄ'Ä«lÄ«yÄt. Furthermore, early literary critics, like ibn SallÄm al-Jumaḥī and ibn al-NadÄ«m, censured ibn IsḥÄq for knowingly including forged poems in his biography, and for attributing poems to persons not known to have written any poetry. The 14th-century historian al-DhahabÄ«, using hadith terminology, noted that in addition to the forged (makdhÅ«b) poetry, Ibn IsḥÄq filled his sÄ«ra with many munqaá¹iÊ¿ (broken chain of narration) and munkar (suspect narrator) reports.
Guillaume notices that Ibn IsḥÄq frequently uses a number of expressions to convey his skepticism or caution. Beside a frequent note that only God knows whether a particular statement is true or not (p. xix), Guillaume suggests that Ibn IsḥÄq deliberately substitute the ordinary term "ḥaddathanÄ«" by a word of suspicion "zaÊ¿ama" ("he alleged") to show his skepticism about certain traditions (p. xx).
Translations
In 1864 the Heidelberg professor Gustav Weil produced an annotated German translation. Several decades later the Hungarian scholar Edward Rehatsek left an English translation, but one not published until over a half-century later.
Alfred Guillaume's 1955 English translation of Ibn Isḥaq, but some have questioned the reliability of this translation. 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).
Other works
Ibn Isḥaq wrote several works. About his al-Mubtadaʾ wa al-BaÊ¿th wa al-MaghÄzÄ«, the Kitab al-Mubtada and Kitab al-Mab'ath both survive in part, particularly al-Mab'ath, in ibn Hisham and al-Mubtada otherwise in substantial fragments. He is also credited with the lost works KitÄb al-kh̲ulafÄʾ, which al-UmawwÄ« related to him (Fihrist, 92; UdabÄʾ, VI, 401) and a book of Sunan (ḤÄd̲j̲d̲j̲ī Ḵh̲alÄ«fa, II, 1008).
Reliability of his ahadith
In hadith studies, ibn Isḥaq's hadith (considered separately from his prophetic biography) is generally thought to be "good" (ḥasan) (assuming an accurate and trustworthy isnad, or chain of transmission) and himself having a reputation of being "sincere" or "trustworthy" (á¹£adÅ«q). However, a general analysis of his isnads has given him the negative distinction of being a mudallis, meaning one who did not name his teacher, claiming instead to narrate directly from his teacher's teacher. Because of his tadlÄ«s, many scholars including Muhammad al-Bukhari hardly ever used his narrations in their sahih books. According to al-Khaá¹Ä«b al-BaghdÄdÄ«, all scholars of ahadith except one no longer rely on any of his narrations, although truth is not foreign to him. Others, like Ahmad ibn Hanbal, rejected his narrations on all matters related to fiqh. Al-DhahabÄ« concluded that despite his good qualities any narration solely transmitted through him should probably be considered munkar.
See also
- List of biographies of Muhammad
- List of Muslim historians
References
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Alfred Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad. A translation of Isḥaq's "Sirat Rasul Allah", with introduction [xiii-xliii] and notes (Oxford University 1955), xlvii + 815 pages. The Arabic text used by Guillaume was the Cairo edition of 1355/1937 by Mustafa al-Saqqa, Ibrahim al-Abyari and Abdul-Hafiz Shalabi, as well as another, that of F. Wustenfeld (Göttingen 1858â"1860). Ibn Hasham's "Notes" are given at pages 691â"798.
- Gustav Weil, Das Leben Mohammeds nach Mohammed ibn Ishak, bearbeitet von Abd Malik ibn Hischam (Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler'schen Buchh. 1864), 2 volumes. The Sirah Rasul Allah translated into German with annotations. Volume 1
- Ibn Isḥaq, The Life of Muhammad. Apostle of Allah (London: The Folio Society 1964), 177 pages. From a translation by Edward Rehatsek (Hungary 1819 â" Mumbai [Bombay] 1891), abridged and introduced [at 5â"13] by Michael Edwards. Rehatsek completed his translation; in 1898 it was given to the Royal Asiatic Society of London by F.F.Arbuthnot.
- Ibn Isḥaq (2004). Al-MazÄ«dÄ«, Aḥmad FarÄ«d, ed. Al-SÄ«rah al-Nabawiyah li-ibn IsḥÄq (اÙسÙرة اÙÙبÙÙØ© Ùاب٠إسØاÙ) (in Arabic). BayrÅ«t: DÄr al-kutub al-Ê»ilmiyah. ISBN 2-7451-3982-7.Â
- Ibn Isḥaq (1976). Hamidullah, Muhammad, ed. SÄ«rat ibn IsḥÄq al-musammÄh bi-kitÄb al-Mubtadaʼ wa-al-MabÊ»ath wa-al-maghÄzÄ« (سÙرة اب٠اسØاÙØ Ø§Ù٠س٠اة بâÙتاب اÙ٠بتدأ ÙاÙ٠بعث ÙاÙ٠غاز٠) (in Arabic). Al-RabÄá¹ al-Maghrib: MaÊ»had al-DirÄsÄt wa-al-AbḥÄth lil-TaÊ»rÄ«b.Â
Traditional biographies
- Ibn Sayyid al-NÄs, Ê¿UyÅ«n al-athar fÄ« funÅ«n al-maghÄzÄ« wa al-shamÄʾil wa al-siyar.
- Al-Khaá¹Ä«b al-BaghdÄdÄ«, TÄrÄ«kh BaghdÄd.
- Al-DhahabÄ«, MÄ«zÄn al-iÊ¿tidÄl fÄ« naqd al-rijÄl.
- YÄqÅ«t al-ḤamawÄ«, IrshÄd al-arÄ«b fÄ« mÊ¿refat al-adÄ«b.
Secondary sources
- Donner, Fred McGraw (1998). Narratives of Islamic origins: the beginnings of Islamic historical writing. Darwin Press. ISBNÂ 978-0-87850-127-4.Â
- Robinson, Chase, Islamic Historiography, Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-521-58813-8
- Wansbrough, John, Quranic Studies, 1977, as reprinted in 2004, ISBN 0-19-713588-9
- Wansbrough, John, The Sectarian Milieu, 1978, as reprinted in 2005. ISBN 0-19-713596-X.
- 'Arafat, W. (1958-01-01). "Early Critics of the Authenticity of the Poetry of the "SÄ«ra"". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 21 (1/3): 453â"463. doi:10.1017/s0041977x00060110. ISSNÂ 0041-977X. JSTORÂ 610611.Â