Обсуждение:Сира

Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān

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Sīra and the Qurʾān [Supplement 2016] (13,079 words)

Article Table of Contents

Sīra or maghāzī

The earliest sources

Qiṣṣa

Wahb b. Munabbih

ʿUrwa b. al-Zubayr

Mūsā b. ʿUqba

al-Zuhrī

Ibn Isḥāq and his editors

Maʿmar b. Rāshid

al-Wāqidī

Ibn Saʿd

Ḥadīth collections

Sīra and scripture

Commenting on the Qurʾān

Narrative expansion

Qurʾānisation

Linking scripture to situations

The genres within the sīra

Prophetic legend

Maghāzī

Poetry

Addresses

Written documents

Genealogy

The merits of the Companions

Sīra and historiography

Bibliography

Sīra is a branch of Arabic literature that is devoted to the earliest salvation history of Islam and focuses on God’s actions towards and through his prophet Muḥammad, i.e. the revelation of the Qurʾān and the foundation of an Islamic community. The term sīra can also denote a work belonging to that literature.

Sīra is the noun of kind (fiʿla) of the Arabic verb sāra, "to go, " "to travel, " etc., indicating the manner in which the action expressed by the verb is carried out (see Arabic language; grammar and the Qurʾān). Hence, it originally meant "way of going, " but its most frequent meaning is «way of acting, conduct, way of life» (see also tradition and custom). In the Qurʾān the word sīra occurs only in Q 20:21, where it means «way of acting» or "condition, " and has nothing to do with the literature under discussion. The word also came to mean «the life and times of…,» "vita, " or «biography.» In the second/eighth century it was applied to the history of various Persian kings, and also to the lives and times of some of the Umayyad caliphs (see caliph).

In present-day Muslim usage, the sīrapar excellence is that of the Prophet: sīrat rasūl Allāh or al-sīra al-nabawiyya, which is often translated as «the biography of the Prophet.» However, this designation is inaccurate. The life and times of Muḥammad are certainly pivotal in the sīra, but it also contains reports and narratives about the ancient history of Arabia (see pre-Islamic Arabia and the Qurʾān), the earlier prophets (see Prophets and prophethood; messenger), the Companions (see Companions of the Prophet), and the first caliphs, whose sunna was relevant for the Islamic community. Furthermore, it deals with Qurʾānic exegesis (see exegesis of the Qurʾān: classical and medieval) and the times and circumstances of Qurʾānic revelation (see revelation and inspiration; occasions of revelation), and also preserves letters, speeches, documents, genealogies, lists of names, and poetry (see poetry and poets; rhetoric and the Qurʾān).

Sīra or maghāzī

In the first centuries of Islam, most collections of sīra texts were formulated with the name of maghāzī («expeditions»; see expeditions and battles), although they also contained writings on non-military matters. Whatever their name, the collections consist of the same kind of greatly heterogeneous, rather fragmentary material that belong to different genres (Hinds, EI2; Hinds, ‘Maghāzī’ and ‘sīra’; Jarrar, Prophetenbiographie, 1-59; Schöller, Exegetisches Denken, 37-49).

The earliest sources

Sīra works have been written throughout the centuries, and one may even count among them modern biographies of the Prophet. Since the sīra is a whole branch of literature, there is no point in studying only the one book by Ibn Isḥāq (d. 150/767) that became famous in the edition of Ibn Hishām (d. ca. 213/828). What follows is a survey of the earliest sources, which have the greatest relevance to our subject. About half of them can be studied in translation (see tools for the study of the Qurʾān). For later sīra works see Kister, Sīrah, 366-7; Schöller, Exegetisches Denken, 64-70.

Qiṣṣa

The first people to be strongly interested in the Qurʾān, the Prophet, and early Islamic knowledge in general were the storytellers or preachers named the qāṣṣ (pl. quṣṣāṣ; see Pellat, EI2; Duri, Rise, index s.v. qiṣaṣ; Norris, Elements; see also teaching and preaching the Qurʾān). They began their activities in private gatherings, and sometimes in the mosque, where, in the Umayyad period, they had official permission to address the faithful. In their sermons they would encourage soldiers and curse the enemies of Islam (see path or way; fighting; jihād), but also explain the Qurʾān, depict hell (see Hell and hellfire) and Paradise, and recount the life of the Prophet and the lives of his predecessors.

Their stories (qiṣṣa, pl. qiṣaṣ) were both edifying and entertaining, and did not eschew flights of fancy. When expanding on the Qurʾānic narratives about earlier prophets they often drew upon Jewish and Christian stories, both biblical and non-biblical (Vajda, EI2; see Jews and Judaism; Christians and Christianity; scripture and the Qurʾān). What had already been started in the Qurʾān was continued in these stories: Muḥammad is positioned as the last prophet in a succession of earlier prophets, while the latter, for their part, are given characteristics similar to those of Muḥammad (see narratives).

After the Umayyad period, these storytellers were banned from the mosque again and again. Their reputation deteriorated and they ended up on the streets, ever popular with the public but frowned upon by the religious establishment. Their inclination to exaggerate and fantasise irritated pious believers and ḥadīth scholars (see ḣadīth and the Qurʾān), and the extra-Islamic material they expoundedwas increasingly deemed unacceptable (see traditional disciplines of Qurʾānic study).

For the sīra, the early activities of storytellers are of great importance. Since they were not writers, and since they lost their good reputation quite early, hardly any of their narratives were collected in books under their names. But in some form or other their stories seeped into sīra and tafsīr works, despite frequent attempts by the compilers to dissociate themselves from them.

It is often possible to recognise a storyteller’s contribution by its style. The story of the Prophet’s bargaining with God in heaven about the number of obligatory prayers (e.g. Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 271; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 186-7; see prayer; ascension), which has clear biblical precedents, has all the characteristics of an orally performed story (see orality). Also, the Prophet’s world-renouncing address at the graveyard of Medina shortly before his death (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 1000; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 678) has the pietistic ring of a qiṣṣa, although it is recorded with a chain of transmitters or isnād (other examples in Duri, Rise, 113; see asceticism; piety; abstinence).

Wahb b. Munabbih

One storyteller who is relatively well documented is the Yemenī Wahb b. Munabbih (ca. 34-110/654-728; see Wahb, Papyrus; Khoury, EI2; Khoury, Les sources, 23-7; Duri, Rise, 122-35), who was well-versed in the biblical and pre-Islamic heritage and familiar with stories about the Prophet. Several books were ascribed to him. Whatever form they may have had, there was one about the creation and the early prophets and another about the pre-Islamic history of Yemen. In these fields, Wahb was considered an authorityand quoted extensively by sīra authors like Ibn Isḥāq, Ibn Hishām, al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923), and others, but his texts about the expeditions and battles of the Prophet were not deemed reliable enough to quote. Long sīra quotations from Wahb b. Munabbih can, however, be found in the writings of the Ṣūfī author Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī (336—430/948-1038; Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ, 4:72-81; see Ṣūfism and the Qurʾān).

Two larger pieces ascribed to Wahb have been preserved in a third/ninth century papyrus. One is a part of the story of David; the other is a sīra text that covers events related to the Prophet’s meeting with envoys from Medina at ʿAqaba, his emigration, and a military expedition by ʿAlī (see Alī b. Abī Ṭālib). The narrative is lengthy, full of poetry, and contains miracle stories (see marvels; miracles. These include the Prophet healing with "the breath of God, " cf. Wahb, Papyrus, 142; see illness and health; medicine and the Qurʾān). In its present form the text may not contain Wahb’s own wordings, as is the case with the quotations found in Abū Nuʿaym, yet both clusters do exude the qiṣṣa atmosphere and reveal a pre-«scholarly» stage of sīra activity.

ʿUrwa b. al-Zubayr

ʿUrwa b. al-Zubayr (ca. 23-93/643-712; Schoeler, EI2; Schoeler, Character, 28-32; Görke and Schoeler, Berichte; gas 1:278-9; Duri, Rise, 76-95; Görke, Ḥudaybiya; Horovitz, Biographies, 548-52), a traditionist and historian from Medina, belonged to the establishment of early Islam. The Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik (r. 65-85/685-705) and his successor al-Walīd (r. 86-96/705-15) wrote to ʿUrwa for information about certain events that happened during and after the life of the Prophet. ʿUrwa’s answers form a first attempt at historiography. These letters, however, are without the edifying and entertaining character of qiṣaṣ. Taking into account that ʿAbd al-Malik did not appreciate the then-current maghāzī-stories (Schoeler, Character, 47; Jarrar, Prophetenbiographie, 20-3), ʿUrwa perhaps deliberately composed his letters as no-nonsense, memorisable summaries that were meant to lay down in writing the «correct» versions of important events. Yet he must have drawn upon longer narratives.

The letters are scattered across various sources (on these and on the German trans. Görke and Schoeler, Berichte; for an English trans. see Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, index, and Rubin, Eye, 157-61). They can be recognised by an introduction such as: "ʿAbd al-Malik asked about […] and ʿUrwa wrote back […], " although this formula is sometimes lacking. There is a fair chance that the letters do indeed go back to ʿUrwa, although his wording may have suffered in the course of transmission. ʿUrwa did not write a book; the work published under the title Kitāb maghāzī rasūl Allāh is a later concoction.

Mūsā b. ʿUqba

Mūsā b. ʿUqba al-Asadī (ca. 55-141/675-758; gas, 1:286-7; Schoeler, Mūsā; Schacht, On Mūsā; Horovitz, Biographies, 164-7) was a Medinan scholar and historian who collected and disseminated material on the Prophet’s life, as well as on the pre-Islamic period and the first caliphs. Being a client of the Zubayr family (see tribes and clans; clients and clientage; Arabs) and a pupil of al-Zuhrī, he was in an excellent position to do so. His Kitāb al-maghāzī, i.e. his notebook to be copied by pupils, is not extant. A selection of nineteen ḥadīth has, however, been preserved in a Berlin manuscript. Schoeler defends Mūsā against J. Schacht, who maintained that these textswere not really transmitted by him. He demonstrates that Mūsā’s sources (mostly al-Zuhrī) are not fictitious, and in one case even proves the authenticity of al-Zuhrī’s source, who is none other than ʿUrwa b. al-Zubayr. His argument rests on the analysis of more Mūsā quotations and parallel texts than Schacht had at his disposal, and on using the common-link method (see Juynboll, EQ, 378-81).

A current scholarly desideratum is the collection and study of all Mūsā quotations that are scattered across the various sources (some references in gas, 1:287). Pending that, we have only a vague impression of Mūsā’s activities and interests. In none of his texts seen by the present author does he refer to the Qurʾān. He does not shun qiṣṣa or miracle stories but has also a clear interest in chronography.

al-Zuhrī

One of the central figures of the sīra literature was Muḥammad b. Muslim b. Shihāb al-Zuhrī (d. 124/742; Lecker, EI2; Boekhoff, Zuhrī; Horovitz, Biographies, 33-50; Schoeler, Character, 32-7, 47-8; Duri, Rise, 27-9, 113-7), who was a collector of both ḥadīth and stories, as well as being interested in genealogy and the lives of the early caliphs. He was the most important pupil of ʿUrwa b. al-Zubayr. His works may have been no more than note-books for private use and reading sessions for civil servants and pupils, but he did start to develop a structure for the sīra. His narratives are often lengthy and follow the form of ḥadīth, i.e. they have chains of transmission.

Al-Zuhrī was consulted and patronised by the Umayyad court, which implied that he was not to write favourably about ʿAlī (see Shīʿa; Shīʿism and the Qurʾān). He was allegedly asked by an Umayyad governor to compose one book on genealogy and another on maghāzī. The order for the first work was soon cancelled but he was to continue on the second. Whether he really wrote it is unknown (Schoeler, Charakter, 47; Jarrar, Prophetenbiographie, 23-32). Maʿmar b. Rāshid (see below) offers a more or less uniform block of texts from al-Zuhrī’s collection. His traces are found in all later sīra compilations.

Ibn Isḥāq and his editors

Muḥammad b. Isḥāq (Medina; ca. 85-150/704-67 [Baghdad]) is the most important author of sīra literature (Schoeler, Charakter, 37-51; Newby, Making, 1-31; Duri, Rise, 32-7; Jones, EI2). He seems to have specialised in narratives and history from fairly early. His main teacher was al-Zuhrī, and several relatives of ʿUrwa b. al-Zubayr were among his informants. Not all scholars in Medina appreciated Ibn Isḥāq’s work, however, as, by his time, narratives were generally losing ground to legal ḥadīth with fully-fledged chains of transmission (see law and the Qurʾān; abrogation). He therefore left his native town and settled in Iraq, where he found a more appreciative audience. Caliph al-Manṣūr (r. 136-58/754-75) asked him to write an all-encompassing history book, from the creation of Adam (see Adam and Eve) to the present day. The material on the Prophet that Ibn Isḥāq had previously collected and dictated to his pupils was integrated into this book and given pride of place. This work, his magnum opus, consisted of three volumes. The first one, al-Mubtadaʾ («In the beginning») dealt with the creation of the world, the early prophets from Adam to Jesus, and the Arabs in pre-Islamic times. In the second part, al-Baʿth («The mission»), the life of the Prophet was depicted until his emigration to Medina. In part three, al-Maghāzī («Expeditions and battles»), Muḥammad’s activities in Medina were described. A fourth volume was added about his successors, the caliphs. Ibn Isḥāq did not merely collect material, like his predecessors; he composed a work with a structure, which was sometimes chronological and sometimes arranged by subject.

Apparently there was just one copy of his work, and it was held in the court library in Baghdad. Ibn Isḥāq continued «publishing» from it by dictating parts to his pupils, who wrote them down verbatim. Large parts of the book, especially of the first three parts, have been handed down to us through these dictations and extracts by his pupils, and in the works of later compilers who edited them.

Three of Ibn Isḥāq’s editors are worth mentioning here. The most widely known is ʿAbd al-Malik b. Hishām (d. ca. 215/830 in Egypt; see Watt, EI2; Schoeler, Charakter, 50-3), whose selection from Ibn Isḥāq’s work was the first sīra text to be transmitted in a fixed form (Arabic text: Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, ed. Wüstenfeld; trans. Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, which displays in margine the page numbers of the Wüstenfeld edition). By editing only part of the original work Ibn Hishām narrowed the perspective down to the Prophet and ancient Arabia: he deals with the Kaʿba and the Christians and Jews on the peninsula, but not the earlier prophets. He explains difficult words and expressions in his own notes, adds narratives, poetry, and genealogical data. Ibn Hishām made judgments about the theological «purity» of the texts he selected and left out passages he found offensive.

In his Taʾrīkh, al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923; see Bosworth, EI2) transmits considerable sections of Ibn Isḥāq’s work. For the Kitāb al-mubtadaʾ, al-Ṭabarī is even our main source (Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, 1:9-872, fragments; trans. vols. 1-4, index; the stories of the prophets are also in Newby, Making). The part on Muḥammad, in a version related to that of Ibn Hishām, but shorter, is scattered across Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, 1:1073-837. Two striking stories that Ibn Hishām had not included are those about Muḥammad’s intended suicide (Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, 1:1147) and the «Satanic Verses» (ibid., 1:1192-6). The Taʾrīkh is conceived as a universal history; Muḥammad is once again at the centre, between the earliest history (here also including the kings of Persia) and the later periods of the caliphs. Much of Ibn Isḥāq’s sīra material is also found in al-Ṭabarī’s Tafsīr, but there it has to be laboriously gleaned from his exegesis of individual Qurʾānic verses (some references are in Newby, Making).

The least-known edition of a part of Ibn Isḥāq’s work is that by Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-ʿUṭāridī (177—272/794-886; gas, 1:146). It is based on the transmission of Ibn Isḥāq’s pupil Yūnus b. Bukayr (d. 199/815; gas, 1:289). The extant text, which covers roughly one-fifth of Ibn Hishām’s recension, was not printed until 1976, and there is no translation yet. On the whole, al-ʿUṭāridī has some Ibn Isḥāq material that Ibn Hishām would have frowned upon. Moreover, he includes texts that do not go back to Ibn Isḥāq at all (Ibn Isḥāq-ʿUṭāridī; Muranyi, Riwāya; a description of the contents is in Guillaume, New light; translated fragments in Rubin, Eye, index s.v. Yūnus b. Bukayr, and in Schoeler, Character, index s.v. Yūnus and al-ʿUṭāridī).

Maʿmar b. Rāshid

A medium sized, as-yet untranslated maghāzī collection by the Yemenī Maʿmar b. Rāshid (96-154/714-70) is preserved in ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Muṣannaf, 5:9718-84 (Boekhoff, Kitāb; Horovitz, Biographies, 167-9; gas, 1:290-1; Schoeler, Character, 40). His work is important since it gives an insight into the collection of al-Zuhrī, his primary source. Maʿmar offers no continuing story. His texts about important events are arranged more or less chronologically and following these are writings about the private life of the Prophet. His material included stories about the ancient prophets, which are quoted in al-Ṭabarī (Taʾrīkh, 1: s.v. index). Quotations from him can also be found in the works of al-Wāqidī (d. 207/822) and Ibn Saʿd (d. 230/845).

al-Wāqidī

Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Wāqidī (130—207/747-822; see Leder, EI2; Duri, Rise, 37-9; Schoeler, Charakter, 137-41) was a fully-fledged historian. Due to his favourable position at the ʿAbbāsid court he had the best library possible at his disposal; moreover, he owned many books himself. He also carried out research by visiting the sites of battles and interviewing the descendants of the combatants. His only extant work, al-Maghāzī, of which there is a German translation, is an indispensable source for the expeditions and battles of the Prophet and displays significant interest in chronology (see history and the Qurān). Other sīra texts by al-Wāqidī, e.g. a book on the death of the Prophet, have reached us through quotations in the works of his secretary Ibn Saʿd.

In general, al-Wāqidī not only copied his sources but also re-shaped and combined various traditions under collective chains of transmission. The question of whether he plagiarised Ibn Isḥāq remains controversial.

Ibn Saʿd

Ibn Saʿd Muḥammad b. Saʿd (168—230/784-845) wrote Akhbār al-nabī, the life and times of the Prophet, which is the first extant, full biography of the Prophet after Ibn Isḥāq, and of which an English translation is available (Fück, EI2; Duri, Rise, 39-40; Horovitz, Biographies, 521-6). A later editor integrated it into Ibn Saʿd’s Kitāb al-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr, a work on the Companions of the Prophet and successive generations of ḥadīth transmitters, of which it became the first part. Having been the secretary of al-Wāqidī, Ibn Saʿd heavily depends on the latter’s works and is an important source for al-Wāqidī’s lost writings. In the Akhbār, the pre-Islamic section is limited to some of the early prophets and the ancestry of Muḥammad. The Meccan period is presented chronologically, interrupted only by a survey of the signs of prophethood. The chronological account of the Medinan period is interspersed with thematically arranged collections of traditions on various specialised subjects. These have proper chains of transmission, whereas the longer narratives often have collective isnāds. For the part on the expeditions and battles, al-Wāqidī’s Maghāzī might be preferred, as Ibn Saʿd offers only an abridged version of it, although he also includes extra material from elsewhere. The Akhbār al-nabī ends with detailed sections on the Prophet’s final illness, death, and burial, his heritage, and elegies on him (see also names of the Prophet). Here he draws upon al-Wāqidī’s lost book on the death of the Prophet, but once more he enriches the section with many traditions, all with isnāds. For the lives of the Companions who play a part in the sīra, Ibn Saʿd’s Ṭabaqāt proper is of key importance.

Ḥadīth collections

Several ḥadīth collections have a maghāzī section, such as those of Ibn Abī Shayba (Muṣannaf, 14:283-601) and al-Bukhārī’s (d. 256/870) Ṣaḥīḥ, Maghāzī. Above we have made special mention of Maʿmar’s collection, since that is presented as a distinct block with a certain degree of composition, which is not the case elsewhere. Otherwise, sīra fragments are found throughout the ḥadīth collections. Many narratives that would have had a defective chain of transmission or none at all in early sīra compilations were preserved as acceptable by being admitted into the «canonical» ḥadīth collections. Ḥadīth, however, often not see to narrate, but to focus on what is lawful and ethical (see lawful and unlawful; ethics and the Qurʾān). This may lead to a re- or de-contextualisation of sīra elements within ḥadīth. It is interesting to see, for instance, how the Prophet’s use of a toothpick on his deathbed (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 1011; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 682) turned from a minor narrative detail into an example for daily life in ḥadīth (Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Maghāzī, 83; Jumʿa, 9; and see Wensinck, Concordance, s.v. siwāk).

Sīra and scripture

The Qurʾān is neither the only, nor the oldest text that had an impact on the sīra. Firstly, there was a heritage of ancient Arabic narrative literature, the «days of the Arabs» (ayyām al-ʿarab; see Mittwoch, EI2; Duri, Rise, 16-20 and index), which were stories about battles and fights interspersed with poetry (see fighting; days of God). They served as models for accounts of military expeditions in the sīra. Large parts of the sīra originated in reaction to the Bible, the apocrypha, and exegetical traditions of both Jews and Christians, as well as Christian saints’ legends (for the latter, see e.g. Newby, Example). The authority of the new Prophet over the earlier prophets had to be established, and the superiority of the Qurʾān to the scriptures of others had to be demonstrated (see polemic and polemical language).

Uri Rubin has pointed out that the Bible and the literature around it were the first scriptural influence in more sīra passages than had been realised before. He demonstrated by various examples how biblical references, which had been seen in a text’s early stage, were later removed or replaced by Qurʾānic ones, since the sīra compilers or authors were increasingly embarrassed by the original background of their material (Rubin, Eye; see also Vajda, EI2, and below under «Qurʾānisation»). It is not always easy to recognise the traces of these forms of literature, since later sīra authors tried to erase them. Textual parallels, however remote, are rare; it is mostly the subject matter or the pattern of a narrative that can be recognised as Jewish or Christian in origin. For a better understanding of intertextuality in the sīra, it is therefore necessary to study it in the context of all relevant previous literature, not only in connection with the Qurʾān.

The Qurʾān is part of the subject matter of the sīra, but it also has various other relations with it. Since the sīra is fragmentary and consists of many genres, every genre must be studied to ascertain how it reacts and relates to Qurʾānic scripture. But first the various Qurʾān-related activities in sīra texts must be described.

Certain sīra texts originate from an exegetical impulse. They elaborate on Qurʾānic passages by commenting, expanding, or historicising them through episodes in the life of the Prophet and his entourage. Other texts originated in a non-scriptural impulse, and Qurʾānic words or passages were added to them secondarily («Qurʾānisation»). This was done for a variety of reasons: to edify; to create an elevated atmosphere; to lend weight to a statement or argument; or to replace other «scripture» or poetry that an earlier version of the text had contained. A great many texts, however, are so complex that it is difficult to decide which of these impulses was predominant.

Commenting on the Qurʾān

In its narrative parts, the sīra is largely Qurʾānic exegesis (tafsīr). Ibn Isḥāq’s method does not differ significantly from that of his contemporary, the Qurʾānic exegete Muqātil b. Sulaymān (d. 150/767; Wansbrough, qs, 122-7). When looking in detail, various exegetical methods can be discerned. Several of them are manifest in two single passages: the commentary on Q 108 (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 261-2; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 180-1, 725) and on Q 93 (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 156-7; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 713-4).

Lexical explanation of a rare, difficult, or ambiguous word . This is not typical of sīra texts, but it does occur, notably with Ibn Hishām, and a few times with Ibn Isḥāq (see difficult passages; ambiguous). A single word may be explained: a) by a single synonym, such as al-Kawthar (Q 108:1), which means «great» (see springs and fountains; water of Paradise), and sajā, in Q 93:2, which means «to be quiet»; b) by a number of words, as, for example, when Ibn Hishām explains the word nādī in Q 96:17, «let him then call his nādī,» as: «the meeting place in which people gather together and settle their affairs» (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 200; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 720); c) with the help of other Qurʾānic verses where the word occurs, such as Ibn Hishām’s subsequent reference to nādī in Q 29:29 and to the synonym nadī in Q 19:73; d) with the help of a quotation from early poetry where the same word is used, such as when, in Q 93:2: "By the night (see day and night when it is quiet (sajā), " Ibn Hishām mentions a synonym for sajā, but adds: «[The poet] Umayya b. Abī al-Ṣalt says: ‘[…] and the night was quiet in blackest gloom’.»

Paraphrase; explaining a sentence or passage by rewriting it using other words. Unknown words are replaced by well-known ones; the meaning of ambiguous words is fixed by the use of unambiguous words. «Your Lord has neither forsaken you nor loathes you» (Q 93:3), is paraphrased as: «meaning that he has not left you and abandoned you, nor hated you after having loved you.» With the words "after having loved you, " the paraphrase slips into another exegetical mode: expansion.

Specifying what is vague, with the help of external information and/or the free flow of thought. Al-Ṭabarī (Taʾrīkh, 1:1142) explains «on the day of the furqān, on the day when the two armies met» (Q 8:41; see criterion) as: «the battle of the Prophet with the polytheists (see polytheism and atheism; opposition to Muḥammad) at Badr, which took place on the morning of the seventeenth of Ramaḍān.» Ibn Isḥāq quotes a ḥadīth according to which kawthar is «a river as broad as from Ṣanʿāʾ to Ayla. Its water pots are in number as the stars of heaven (see planets and stars; heaven and sky). Birds go down to it with necks like camels […].» In an ascension story (Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, 1:1158), kawthar is described as «a river [in paradise] whiter than milk and sweeter than honey, with pearly domes on either side of it.»

Identifying the anonymous. Who was the man with the horns whose story is told in Q 18:83-98. Ibn Isḥāq heard from a Persian source that he was an Egyptian of Greek extraction, whose name he mentions. But he also quotes a ḥadīth according to which it refers to an angel. Ibn Hishām gives another name: it was Alexander, who built Alexandria (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 197; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 139, 719). This is an example of the unbridled imagination of the storytellers, who left no bit of the Qurʾān unexplained. The sīra thus has yet another purpose, to identify persons who are referred to in the scripture. It aims to link Qurʾānic passages to past, real-world situations and to record the history of early Islam, on which see below.

Narrative expansion

A short example of narrative expansion is found below, under "Linking scripture to situations, " with the case of Jadd b. Qays. Two incomprehensible words in the scripture are explained by building a few sentences around them. A story can also be built around the framework of a Qurʾānic passage. Maʿmar’s narrative (ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Muṣannaf, 389-90 [no. 9743]) about the Qurayshī plot to kill the Prophet on the eve of the hijra is an expansion and explanation of Q 8:30: «[Remember] when the unbelievers plotted against you, to confine you, kill you or expel you. They plotted, but God plotted also, and God is the best of plotters.» Here, the Quraysh gather in their council chamber, assisted by Satan in disguise. They discuss three possible ways to deal with Muḥammad, expelling, confining, or killing him, and agree on the third option (to create greater suspense, the order was slightly changed). God’s counterplot consists in warning the Prophet, who can escape unseen, while ʿAlī is to sleep in the Prophet’s bed, so that the Quraysh would find only him. The whole story follows the structure of the Qurʾānic verse; only the satanic motif is foreign to it.

In the work of Ibn Isḥāq, whose text shows a well-balanced composition, sīra narratives that are linked to a Qurʾānic passage can be much longer, and the verses need not even be quoted. The story of the Prophet’s ascension (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 263-72; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 181-7) is preceded and followed by mentions of enemies who mocked the Prophet and of how they were punished (see mockery; chastisement and punishment). After the ascension story, Ibn Isḥāq continues by showing Gabriel arriving to punish the men. Apparently Ibn Isḥāq had a Qurʾānic passage in mind: «And they say: ‘[…] we will not believe you until you […] ascend to heaven. Yet, we will not believe in your ascension, until you send down to us a book we can read’» (Q 17:90-3). Ibn Isḥāq here wants to apply the Qurʾānic motif that unbelievers ask for signs, and when these are given to them, still do not believe (see reflection and deliberation; provocation).

Qurʾānisation

While a sīra narrative may start from a Qurʾānic word or pericope that is then explained or expanded, the opposite can be found as well: a narrative starts from an extra-Qurʾānic impulse, for example the desire to tell a certain story, and is then enriched with scriptural material. This can be called «Qurʾānisation.»

A simple form of it may be called decorative Qurʾānisation: the use of Qurʾānic wordings to elevate the style register and to create a pious atmosphere. When Ibn Isḥāq once wanted to say «as a bringer of good tidings to all mankind» (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 150; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 104), he did not use his own words, but preferred the syntactically unusual wordings of Q 34:28. When ʿĀʾisha, in the «account of the lie» (see also Spellberg, EQ), tried to increase her courage, she borrowed the words that Jacob had, according to Q 12:18, used in his distress (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 735; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 496). The narrator put Qurʾānic words in her mouth to show what a pious woman she was.

Not just one sentence, but the story as a whole is elevated when a narrative element is added that is built around a Qurʾānic phrase, irrespective of its meaning in the original context. In the ascension story, the Prophet comments on the immense numbers of angels in heaven with the words of Q 74:31: «And none knows the armies of God but he» (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 268; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 185; see troops; ranks and orders). In the verse itself, this phrase refers to the guardians of hell. When, during the Prophet’s visit to heaven, the number of obligatory prayers is reduced, he is notified with a Qurʾānic phrase: «The word is not changed with me» (Q 50:29; ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Muṣannaf, 9719), which originally referred to the day of judgment (see Last Judgment).

But Qurʾānisation can take on much larger dimensions. Above, Maʿmar’s Qurʾān-based version of the story of the plot to kill the Prophet was highlighted. In Ibn Isḥāq (Sīra, 323-6; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 221-3) it is much longer. A narrator decided to add the Qurʾānic motif of the Prophet being called a poet. The suggestion that arises among the plotters is to confine him and subject him to the same fate that befell the poets Zuhayr, Nābigha, and others. Hence Q 52:30 is put to use: «Or they say: ‘A poet for whom we await an uncertain fate’.» The verse itself does not occur in the narrative, but the linking words are obvious: «poet(s)» and «await» (tarabbaṣa). For those who had not recognised it yet, Ibn Isḥāq quotes that verse in full after his narrative, as one of the verses «that God revealed about that day.» Whereas the story as a whole is Qurʾān-based, this part is Qurʾānised.

In that same story yet another type of Qurʾānisation can be seen. Wahb’s version has an additional motif: God impairs the sight (see vision and blindness) of those who lie in wait to kill the Prophet. Miraculously, they cannot see him walk past them and do not even notice him throwing dust onto their heads. This is illustrated by a piece of poetry attributed to ʿAlī (Wahb, Papyrus, 140-4). The partial blindness fits well into the story and anticipates the same motif that occurs somewhat later, in the story of the Prophet’s emigration (cf. Rubin, Hijra, 60-1). Ibn Isḥāq (Sīra, 326; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 222), however, instead of quoting poetry, tells us that the Prophet recited Q 36:1-9 at the time. The choice of these verses is a bit awkward, for only Q 36:9 fits the situation: «And we covered them and they could not see.» If Wahb does indeed represent an older text stage, this is a case of the phenomenon that Rubin pointed out: in time, Qurʾānic elements tend to replace other types of literature, since poetry or biblical texts were increasingly deemed unfit to occur in sīra texts (Rubin, Eye, 33-5, 227). Large-scale Qurʾānisation takes place in the reports on the battles of the Prophet; see below under Maghāzī.

Linking scripture to situations

A typical objective of sīra is to establish a link between a Qurʾānic passage (usually a verse) and a moment in the life of the Prophet. Within the plot of a narrative, a Qurʾānic verse may serve as the impulse for a subsequent action. A verse with an imperative almost cries out for a story about how the command was executed. When the verse, «and warn your closest clan members» (Q 26:214) was revealed, the Prophet warned his cousin ʿAlī and his other relatives (Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, 1:1171-4). After the revelation of «Speak of the kindness of your lord» (Q 93:11) the Prophet began to speak secretly about God’s kindness to everyone he could trust (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 157; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 112).

But in most cases the order is the other way round: something happens, and then a Qurʾānic verse is revealed. Such texts are known as «occasions of revelation» (see Rippin, Occasions; Rubin, Eye, 226-33; Schöller, Exegetisches Denken, 128-33). A complete «occasion» report is characterised by the following features (not necessarily in this order): a reference to an event or situation, mostly in combination with the name(s) of one or more persons, a place, and/or an indication of time; some Qurʾānic words that anticipate the Qurʾānic passage about to be revealed; a formula such as: «(Then) God revealed about …» or: "This verse was revealed about […], " and finally the quoting of the revealed passage itself.

A perfect, but late example is seen in Rippin, Occasions, 570. An example from the sīra, with a somewhat different structure, is: «Some mockers said to the Prophet: ‘Muḥammad, if an angel had been sent to you […].’ Then God revealed concerning these words of theirs: ‘They say: „Why has not an angel been sent down to him?“’» (Q 6:8; Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 262; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 181).

Complete «occasion»-stories are amply represented in sīra texts. The sīra, however, also contains many of them in less complete or preliminary stages. Some examples are: «Then revelations stopped for a time, so that the Prophet was distressed and grieved (see joy and misery). Then Gabriel brought him Q 93 […]» (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 156; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 111). Ibn Isḥāq (Sīra, 171; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 121-2) relates information about a person who had called the Prophet a sorcerer (see magic), and then says: «About him Q 74:11-22 was revealed.» But he does not say that it was revealed on that occasion, and as regards the contents, there is no connection between the Qurʾānic passage and the story. In another example an enemy makes some insulting proposals to the Prophet, after which the latter recites Q 41:1-5, and the man leaves him in peace. This is not formally an «occasion»; it sounds as if the Prophet knew these verses already and recited them from memory (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 186; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 132-3).

Sīra texts seemingly avoid the pretension of knowing God’s reasons for giving His revelations. The exegete Muqātil b. Sulaymān (Tafsīr 1:458, ad Q 5:11) says in all innocence: "This verse was revealed because […] (li-anna), " but the sīra confines itself to fī, "concerning, " although the suggestion of causality is always there.

Scholarly opinion differs regarding the role of the «occasions» in the sīra. Lammens seems to consider the whole sīra a compilation of "occasions, " with the exception of «a vague oral tradition» or «a primitive core» (Lammens, Koran and tradition, 170, 171). To Rubin, the sīra contains no occasions: «… none of the Qurʾānic verses which appear in the biography of Muḥammad can be regarded as the primary source of the story» (Rubin, Eye, 227). Both points of view are extremes, but there are many cases where the exegetical impulse is obvious and where no Qurʾānisation can be discovered.

In certain texts, the aspect of «identifying the anonymous» seems to prevail. When the Qurʾān alludes to an unknown speaker or sinner (see sin, major and minor), the occasion-report knows who this person is. When a narrator says: "This verse was revealed concerning so-and-so, " the intention may be to enhance or undermine the reputation of that person; see below under «Merits of the Companions.»

An «occasion» with a wide-ranging and complicated intention is related in connection with the expedition to Tabūk (see expeditions and battles). While preparing for it, the Prophet asks Jadd b. Qays whether he wants to fight the Byzantines. Jadd answers: «Will you allow me to stay behind and not tempt me, for everyone knows that I am strongly addicted to women and I am afraid that if I see the Byzantine women I shall not be able to control myself.» About him the verse came down: «Among them there is one who says: ‘Allow me and do not tempt me’ …» (Q 9:49; Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 894; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 602-3). This verse existed before the story. It thus raised three questions: Who was the «one who says»? The exegete names him. What do his words «allow me» and «do not tempt me» mean? It is explained by means of the rather strainednarrative expansion, in which the very Qurʾānic words are put into Jadd’s mouth. In what situation did Jadd use these words? Within the report, the connection with the Tabūk expedition is created only by the mention of the Byzantine women. Outside the narrative it is corroborated by its place in the larger context of that expedition. The exegetical activities apparently were carried out only after the assignment of Q 9 to that expedition, which in itself is a case of Qurʾānisation. Apart from exegesis and Qurʾānisation, the «occasions» serve to «historicise» the Qurʾān (see Rippin, Occasions, 572) and to establish its chronology (see Böwering, EQ). This was important for the study of law (see Burton, EQ), but several sīra compilers, who show no interest in law, deal with chronology simply out of historiographical interest.

The genres within the sīra

Now we will address the various genres within the sīra literature, and the degree of their scripturality. There are many places where one is tempted to consider Qurʾānic exegesis as a genre, as well. Since the exegetical intention, however, pervades the whole sīra, it seems preferable to treat it in the broader framework above.

Prophetic legend

Under this heading we group the texts related to prophets and prophecy that attempt to elaborate Muḥammad’s prophetic features (Andræ, Person Muhammeds, ch. 1; Newby, Making, 1-32). The positioning of Muḥammad as the last and the best of the prophets that had already been established in the Qurʾān was completed in the sīra. Characteristics of the ancient prophets were ascribed to Muḥammad and vice versa. The impulse may have been the need for Qurʾānic exegesis, but the elaborations in qiṣṣa and sīra are often of biblical or post-biblical inspiration and therefore scriptural in the wider sense. Many stories about the earlier prophets were collected in Ibn Isḥāq’s Kitāb al-mubtadaʾ, now partially preserved in al-Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, 1:86-795 (trans. also in Newby, Making).

A number of examples may illustrate how extant literary topics were remodelled to fit Muḥammad. The annunciation by Jesus of a comforter, or the Holy Spirit (John 15:26), was applied to Muḥammad in the sīra (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 150; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 104). Muḥammad’s mother received an annunciation during her pregnancy not unlike the mother of Jesus (Luke 1:26-38; Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 102; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 69). These are only small-scale examples, but the annunciation is a major motif in the sīra, which has recently been studied by Rubin (Eye, 21-43). Jews and Christians are said to have known of the birth of Muḥammad in advance. They were supposed to have read in their scriptures about the coming of Muḥammad and his characteristics, so that they could recognise him as a child. The biblical texts that Jews and Christians had applied to the coming of the Messiah, or the Holy Spirit respectively, were now reinterpreted to make them refer to Muḥammad (Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, I, 2:87-9; trans. 1:421-6).

When Muḥammad was with his wet-nurse, he grew up uncommonly fast (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 105; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 71), and he was not the only prophet who did so. The Gospels of the Infancy abound in examples of Jesus’ precocity.

The topic of Muḥammad’s ascension (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 263-71; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 181-7) may have been inspired by Q 17:90-3 (see Sells, EQ), but the story itself is part of a long tradition of Persian, Jewish, and Christian accounts. Certain details in it are reminiscent of the specific texts, such as the description of punishments in hell (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 269; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 185-6; see Hell and hellfire), which has parallels in the Apocalypsis Pauli and the Persian text Ardā Wirāz Nāmag.

The initial refusal of Muḥammad to recite (see recitation of the Qurʾān) when Gabriel brought him the revelation on mount Ḥirāʾ (mā aqraʾu; Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 152; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 106, has a mistaken translation) has precedents in the excuses of several other prophets (cf. Exodus 3:11 — 4:13; Jeremiah 1:6; Jonah 1:2-3; and Q 37:140).

The sīra sometimes recapitulates prophetic characteristics in general statements, most of which are rooted in biblical or Qurʾānic scripture. For example, the saying «There is no prophet but has shepherded a flock» (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 106; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 72) holds true of the Qurʾānic Moses (Q 28:22-8) and the patriarchs as well as Moses, David in the Bible and, metaphorically, of Jesus, «the good shepherd» (John 10:11, 14).

The dictum «A prophet does not die without being given the choice» (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 1008; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 680), however, applies only to Muḥammad. Several prophets had not died naturally. Idrīs was raised to a high place (Q 19:57). In the Bible it was Enoch, Moses, and Elijah who were «raised.» Jesus was resurrected and then raised into heaven (see resurrection). Since Q 3:144 mentions the possibility of the Prophet’s death, Islamic legend had to go its own way on this point. Muḥammad was given the choice between remaining alive or joining the highest companions (al-rafīq al-aʿlā; cf. Q 4:69) in paradise (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 1000, 1011; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 678, 682). However, an attempt was made to make his death resemble the forty-day absence of Moses on Mount Sinai (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 1012; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 682).

In the Qurʾān, miracles play a part in the stories of most prophets, but to Muḥammad they are given only sparsely. The miracles that are alluded to in the Qurʾān, such as, for example, the intervention of angels in the battles of Badr and Ḥunayn, are elaborated in the sīra. In addition to that, sīra texts have few inhibitions about making more miracles happen to or through the Prophet (Andræ, Person Muhammeds, 46-68), such as stones and trees talking to him, trees changing places, the multiplication of water and food, healings, the discovery of poisoned food, and even an unexpected win in a wrestling match (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 258; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 178). Ibn Saʿd (Ṭabaqāt I, 1:96-135; trans. 1:170-219) collected these «signs of prophecy» in a separate chapter; al-Bukhārī also has a small collection (Ṣaḥīḥ, Manāqib, 25). Later on, they developed into a literary genre in its own right (dalāʾil al-nubuwwa; cf. Kister, Sīrah, 355).

Maghāzī

As noted at the start, the word maghāzī could be applied to the sīra literature as a whole. Here we will deal with maghāzī in its narrower sense: stories about the raids, military campaigns, and battles organised or attended by the Prophet (see Faizer, EQ, and its bibliography; M. Hinds, EI2; Duri, Rise, index s.v. maghāzī; Jones, Maghāzī). They may vary from the assassination of a single person through small raids to campaigns of considerable dimensions. The main sources are Ibn Isḥāq and al-Wāqidī. Both tried to establish a chronology, as Mūsā b. ʿUqba apparently also intended to do, but no reliable chronological table can be verified (Schöller, Exegetisches Denken, 215-29; Jones, Chronology). A convenient survey of all the battle accounts and their sources in English is found in Watt, Medina (esp. 339-43).

Maghāzī stories originally had nothing to do with the Qurʾān. They were a continuation of the pre-Islamic tales of tribal battles (ayyām al-ʿarab). In the (theoretical) original maghāzī stories, prose was mixed with poetry; they contained names of participants and heroes, names of places, and a description of the action, sometimes with its occasion and consequences (see geography and the Qurʾān). But such stories that are free of ideology do not exist in the sīra.

The story of Hamza’s expedition to the coast, with its exchange of poetry as the main part (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 419-21; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 283-5), has an ancient structure, but the poetry was influenced by Qurʾānic vocabulary. In the small report on the so-called «barley-meal raid» the poetry comes after the story (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 543-4; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 361-2; Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, 1:1365). Both sources have different poems; apparently they were felt to be interchangeable. Al-Wāqidī (Maghāzī, 181-2) has only two lines, from the same poem as that found in Ibn Isḥāq. Thus the later the source, the less poetry it contains. At the end of another expedition story, a Qurʾānic verse is quoted that was associated with it secondarily. The story takes the shape of an «occasion of revelation.» Then follows the poetry that was composed about that expedition (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 642-8; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 429-33).

This pattern is followed in the larger reports as well. The account of the battle of Badr (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 427—539; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 289—360) is a mix of all sorts of sources, but is essentially a battle narrative. It has some poetry and was apparently interspersed, from relatively early, with some Qurʾānic elements: God’s promise, the help of fighting angels, the enemy being supported by Satan (see Devil; enemies; parties and factions). Then follow several bundels of texts. One is the collected poetry on the subject, which one can imagine had been integrated into the narrative itself at an earlier stage. Furthermore, there are lists of participants and of the fallen.

Almost immediately after the account proper follows a Qurʾān-centred collection, in which large passages from Q 8 are applied to this battle. In them, the story of Badr is re-told in light of the Qurʾān. The parts of Q 8, which were chosen more or less arbitrarily, are applied verse by verse to the details of the battle (Wansbrough, Sectarian milieu, 25-31). This is a case of Qurʾānisation. In al-Wāqidī (Maghāzī, 19-128) these Qurʾānic passages are integrated into the battle story itself, although a separate part on Q 8 is also maintained, rather redundantly; perhaps only because it was there (al-Wāqidī, Maghāzī, 131-8; Wansbrough, Sectarian milieu, 25-31). This pattern is followed in several larger maghāzī stories: Uḥud, the battle of the trench (see People of the Ditch; Ukhdūd), Qurayẓa, and Naḍīr. Each of them has received «its» sūra. But it also happens that the Qurʾānic passage is the origin of this very story, as is the case in Ibn Isḥāq’s report on the expedition against the Jewish tribe of Qaynuqāʿ (Q 5:51-8; see Schöller, Exegetisches Denken, 232).

Even within the maghāzī genre there may be biblical exemplars. Von Mžik pointed to parallels between the biblical story of Gideon (Judges 7:2-22; cf. Q 2:249) and certain elements in the Badr story. Both recount a victory of a host of some 300 men facing fearful odds. In both cases God offers help, and the defeat of the enemy is predicted by a dream of someone in the enemy camp (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 428-9, 506, 516; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 290-1, 336, 340; Jones, Dream).

Last, but not least, the various maghāzī texts may influence each other. Schöller (Exegetisches Denken, 241-9) shows that al-Wāqidī’s version of the Qaynuqāʿ story borrowed elements from reports about the expulsion of other Jewish tribes.

Poetry

One genre in the sīra that has no connection with the Qurʾān is poetry (Horovitz, Einlagen; Kister, Sīrah, 357-61; Wansbrough, Milieu, 32-9). Of old, storytellers had combined prose with poetry in their stories, and the sīra narrators continued this tradition. The poetry has functions similar to those of speeches (see dialogue): it captivates the audience by switching to another mode, underlining a point or emphasising a dramatic moment. In sīra narratives, too, battling or dying heroes are given a chance to improvise poetry, be it self-praise, vituperation, or a rhyming creed, and relatives declaim elegies for those who fell. Such poems often have little merit and are ascribed to unlikely poets. Even more than the narrative parts of the sīra, they were severely criticised (ʿArafat, Early critics).

Very often, the pieces of poetry are not «insertions» that could be cut out without damaging the story or the report but indispensable constituents of it (Wansbrough, Sectarian milieu, 38-9; an extreme case: Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 144-9; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 100-3). Poetry was not unproblematic to early Muslims, since the Qurʾān takes a hard line on it (Q 26:224-6; 52:29-30). The story of the Prophet’s approval of a long poem by the newly converted Kaʿb b. Zuhayr (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 887-92; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 597—601; Zwettler, The poet) was one of the means to legitimise poetry that fulfilled the Islamic condition of not provoking intertribal hostility.

The sīra pays much attention to the verse of Ḥassān b. Thābit (d. ca. 50/669; see ʿArafat, EI2), the «court poet» and elegist of the Prophet (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 1022-6and index; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 689-90, 795-8, and index). Much of the verse ascribed to him is considered spurious today.

The Qurʾānic verdict on poetry, as well as the increasing authority of the Qurʾān in general, resulted in decreased use of it and increased application of Qurʾānic material in sīra texts through the years (cf. Rubin, Eye, 227, 121). As we saw, Ibn Isḥāq placed all the relevant poetry after the accounts of the larger battles. Perhaps the reconstitution and Qurʾānisation (on which see above) of these long narratives had already taken place in his sources and made it impossible to keep the verses in their original places, or he himself felt it proper to give this poetry a less prominent place. For a case of poetry being replaced by Qurʾānic text in a later version of a narrative, see above under «Qurʾānisation»; about the use of pre-Islamic poetry in Qurʾānic exegesis, see above under «Commenting on the Qurʾān.»

Addresses

Sīra texts contain speeches and sermons by the Prophet on solemn occasions, e.g. his first sermons in Medina (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 340-1; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 230-1), his speech at the door of the Kaʿba after the conquest of Mecca (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 821; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 553; see conquests) and during the Farewell Pilgrimage (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 968-9; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 650-1). They are a mix of qiṣṣa-style piety and regulations, enriched with some Qurʾānic allusions or quotations. Some speeches by other persons have been written down: one by the Prophet’s uncle ʿAbbās at the ʿAqaba meeting (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 296; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 203) and one by Jaʿfar b. Abī Ṭālib at the court of the Negus (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 968-9; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 650-1; see Abyssinia). Speeches have a similar function as poetry, or in some cases as documents: they catch the attention and emphasise the importance of what is brought forward (Wansbrough, Sectarian milieu, 38).

Written documents

In this context «written documents» means texts that present themselves as such. The question of whether they are fictitious or not need not concern us. In sīra collections, various types of documents are found:

Treaties. The «Document (kitāb) of Medina» (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 341-4; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 231-3), is an agreement between «Muḥammad the Prophet» and "the believers and Muslims of Quraysh and Yathrib [= Medina] and those who follow them, join them, and strive alongside them, " including Jewish groups. The "Document, " whose textual unity remains controversial, is generally considered to be very old. It contains no allusions to the Qurʾān and has a matter-of-fact attitude towards the Jewish tribes of Medina, which are included in the community (umma), whereas the mainstream sīra stories are hostile to the Jews and full of intertextuality. The names of the three Jewish tribes (Naḍīr, Qurayẓa, and Qaynuqāʿ), which, through the sīra, have become widely known in the Islamic tradition, do not appear in the Document (Humphreys, Islamic history, 92-8, with bibliography; Rubin, Constitution). The text of the Ḥudaybiya treaty is given in full (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 747-8; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 504-5). Treaties with tribes (see tribes and clans; apostasy) are often embodied in letters.

Correspondence of the Prophet with governors, Arabian tribes, foreign rulers, and others (Ibn Abī Shayba, Muṣannaf, 14:336-46, nos. 18,475-86; Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, I, 2:15-38; trans. 1:304-45; spread all over Ibn Isḥāq, al-Ṭabarī, and al-Wāqidī; Hamidullah, Documents; Sperber, Schreiben Muḥammads). Most of this correspondence contains no allusions to the Qurʾān; notable exceptions are the letters to the rulers of Persia and Ethiopia (Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, 1:1569-71), and to the false prophet Musaylima. Letters with Qurʾānic content are unlikely to be old (see also orality and writing in Arabia).

Lists. Sīra texts contain lists. Most of them enumerate names of people, e.g. the oldest converts to Islam; the participants in battles; those who were killed in action (on both sides); the emigrants to Ethiopia and to Medina (see Emigrants and Helpers), as well as those who returned from exile in Ethiopia or died in that country; the participants in certain negotiations (see contracts and alliances; breaking trusts and contracts); the members of certain tribes who came to the Prophet; those who received part of the booty. Such lists may have been copied from government registers, where they originally had the practical function of establishing the rank of a person or his descendants with the "Islamic elite, " and the size of the state income that could be claimed (see Duri, EI2; Puin, Dīwān). Their purpose in the sīra is related to that of the genre of «Merits» (on which see below), i.e. to enhance the reputation of the Companions mentioned therein. Purely historiographical are surveys of the Prophet’s military actions (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 972-3; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 659-60; also Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt II, 1:1-2; trans. 2:2). The greatest list-makers were al-Wāqidī and Ibn Saʿd. The latter went to great lengths: he even listed the camels and goats of the Prophet (Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt I, 2: 176-9; trans. 1:584-90; see camel; hides and fleece; animal life).

Most lists in the sīra are, by their very nature, not scriptural. But there are exceptions: the enumeration of twelve leaders of the Helpers is linked to the twelve disciples of Jesus (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 299; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 204; see apostle). The description of the route taken by Muḥammad in his emigration to Medina, a trajectory unspectacular in itself (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 332-3; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 226-7), may be inspired by the biblical list of stopping places during Israel’s exodus (Numbers 33; see also Children of Israel).

Genealogy

In the tribal Arabian society, genealogy had always been at the centre of historiographical interest, with all the fictionalisation this inevitably involved (Rosenthal, EI2; Rosenthal, Historiography, 95-100; Duri, Rise, 41-2, 50-4; Kister, Sīrah, 361-2; Noth and Conrad, Historical tradition, 37-8). The aim was to establish one’s descent from the noblest Arabian forebears possible, ideally from the legendary Maʿadd (see pre-Islamic Arabia and the Qurʾān).

Sīra authors continued this activity. Their primary aim was to establish the purity of Muḥammad’s pedigree and the nobility of his ancestors. Ibn Isḥāq’s genealogy of the Prophet in the male line (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 3; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 3) goes further back than Maʿadd. About half of the fifty names are Arabic, but beyond Maʿadd the names are biblical (cf. Genesis 5 and 11:10-32; Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, 1:1113-23). They link the Prophet to some of the key figures of Islamic salvation history: Ishmael, Abraham, Noah, and Adam (see Adam and Eve), thus elaborating the Qurʾānic motif of Muḥammad being the last in a succession of prophets. Ibn Isḥāq’s genealogy is reminiscent of that of «Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham» at the beginning of the New Testament (42 names in the reversed order; Matthew 1:1-17).

A list of the ancient prophets from Adam to Muḥammad, with their respective pedigrees (Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt I, 1:26-7; trans. 1:48-9), functions as a kind of spiritual genealogy for the latter, as it establishes a relationship without claiming physical filiation.

There are endless genealogies of the early prophets, notably in al-Ṭabarī’s Taʾrīkh and Ibn Saʿd’s Ṭabaqāt, that are not linked to Muḥammad. These are obviously biblically inspired. On the other hand, several ḥadīth criticise the mentioning of biblical names in the Prophet’s genealogy («genealogists are liars»), arguing that the Qurʾān leaves his oldest forebears unnamed; others replace them with purely Arabic names (Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt I, 1:27-9; trans. 1:49-52). There are non-scriptural genealogies of Muḥammad’s father and mother. Many traditions establish the pedigree of the female ancestors of the Prophet in the maternal line (Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt I, 1:30-6; trans. 1:54-63; see patriarchy; gender). All of them are purely Arabian. There are more than one hundred "mothers, " well distributed over all tribes. Apparently the objective was to demonstrate how firmly connected with all Arabian tribes the Prophet was, and to counter-balance the large impact of non-Arabic traditions.

The numerous genealogies of the Companions of the Prophet that found their way into sīra texts are also non-scriptural, including those of the Prophet’s wives (see wives of the Prophet). They intend to show the nobility of these people and their proximity to the Prophet, and serve similar purposes as the «Merits» texts.

The merits of the Companions

The sīra is not only interested in the Prophet, but also in his Companions who constituted the first Islamic community (see Muranyi, Prophetengenossen; Muranyi, EI2). Apart from being an archive of genealogies and lists of these Companions’ names, it also contains many narratives about their deeds. By such stories people wanted to keep the past alive, as they had always done. Later generations tried to put their forebears in a favourable light, to recount their deeds that were approved or praised by the Prophet, and to emphasise their merits (faḍāʾil, manāqib) for nascent Islam, if need be by contrasting them to the failings (mathālib) of others. There was also a practical reason to do so. A Companion’s position in a list of beneficiaries of donations (see above under «Written documents») was corroborated by reports about him. Moreover, before the sunna of the Prophet became predominant in Islamic law, scholars were just as interested in using the «way of acting» (sīra or sunna) of the earliest caliphs and other prestigious Companions as a means of establishing right behaviour. Hence, several sīra works also dealt with the period after the death of the Prophet.

A specific type of text on merits that features in the sīra is that of the awāʾil, which record by whom something was done for the first time (see Rosenthal, EI2; Ibn Abī Shayba, Muṣannaf, 14:68-147). The first male who believed in the Prophet was ʿAlī (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 158-61; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 114-5). ʿAbdallāh b. Masʿūd was the first after the Prophet to recite the Qurʾān openly in Mecca (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 202; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 141); the first to hold Friday prayers in Medina was Muṣʿab b. ʿUmayr (Mūsā b. ʿUqba, Fragm. 2; see Friday prayer). It may have come naturally for the community to have more regard for the earliest Muslims than for later converts. The first emigrants from Mecca and the first helpers in Medina, as groups, enjoy a special esteem as well.

The functioning of the «merits» genre as an instrument of public opinion may be demonstrated by the example of one Companion. Saʿd b. Abī Waqqāṣ (d. after 40/660; see Hawting, EI2) was one of the first Muslims. He led several military expeditions, took part in all the major battles and was to become a successful general. But when he commanded the army that defeated the Persians at Qādisiyya (ca. 17/638), he did not attend the battle in person — allegedly for health reasons. Some authors criticise him for this absence. In a sīra narrative this criticism is apparently given more weight by projecting it back into the lifetime of the Prophet. It says that Saʿd for some trivial reason failed to take part in a raid on which the Prophet had sent him (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 424; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 287; Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, 1:1274, 1277; cf. Watt, Medina, 6). In contrast, other texts state emphatically that Saʿd was the first to shed blood (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 166; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 118) and the first to shoot an arrow for the cause of Islam (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 416; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 281; Wāqidī, Maghāzī, 10; Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, 1:1267). Are these just examples of praise for Saʿd or of attempts to remove the stain on his reputation? At any rate, the example shows how a Companion could be given a positive or negative «press» in sīra texts.

The attitudes towards the most prominent Companions, the first caliphs, strongly diverge in the sīra. Both their adherents and adversaries tried to make their points in the various narratives, e.g. in those about the death-bed of the Prophet, where the matter of his succession was an issue. A special case is ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭ alib (see Watt, EI2). He was Muḥammad’s uncle, but not a "Companion, " since he never became a Muslim. To the ʿAbbāsid rulers he was a prestigious forebear. Hence we see that Ibn Isḥāq, who worked for the ʿAbbāsid court, has favourable accounts of him (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 296, 1007; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 203, 680), whereas Wahb b. Munabbih is negative about him (Wahb, Papyrus, 126). Mūsā b. ʿUqba (Fragm. no. 6) attempts to establish his kinship with the Helpers of Medina.

Merits have their counterparts in failings (mathālib). These are not always presented as subtly as in the case of Saʿd. In the story about the Muslim emigrants to Ethiopia and the visit paid to the Negus by pagan Meccans (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 217-22; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 150-3; Raven, Negus, 200-1), the good characters are early Muslims with impeccable records, whereas the villains were known as late and possibly opportunistic converts.

There is little Qurʾānic material in the "merits, " apart from some mentions of privileged groups of Companions in Q 9:100; 56:10-11; 59:9-10, but there are many Qurʾānic verses about the hypocrites, who are also an extensive topic in the sīra (see hypocrites and hypocrisy). There is no biblical background, unless one thinks of vague thematic parallels, e.g. that of ʿUmar, a harsh enemy of Islam, turning into its most ardent defender (Ibn Isḥāq, Sīra, 224-7; Ibn Isḥāq-Guillaume, 155-7), as Paul had been for nascent Christianity (Acts 9:1-29).

The deeds of the Companions also found their way into ḥadīth collections in chapters entitled faḍāʾil or manāqib al-aṣḥāb and, from Ibn Saʿd’s Ṭabaqāt onwards, in works especially dedicated to them (see Kern, EQ, primary bibliography).

As well as showing an interest in individuals, the sīra also preserves pieces of tribal history, such as reports on delegations of tribes to the Prophet and their treaties with him, or on conflicts between tribes. Additionally, the rivalry between the Emigrants and Helpers finds its expression in the sīra.

Sīra and historiography

Can sīra texts be useful sources for a reliable biography of Muḥammad, or for the historiography of early Islam? The question has occupied Orientalists for a century and a half (Jeffery, Quest; Peters, Quest; Ibn Warraq, Quest; Rodinson, Survey; Watt, Reliability; Schoeler, Charakter, 9-24; Schöller, Exegetisches Denken, 1-5, 106-14; Motzki, Biography, xi-xv). Ernest Renan (1823-93) was full of confidence: whereas the origins of other religions are lost in mystery and dreams, Islam, as he wrote in 1851, «was born in the full light of history; its roots are on the surface. The life of its founder is as well known to us as that of any sixteenth-century reformer» (quoted in Ibn Warraq, Quest, 129; French original in Gilliot, Muḥammad, 4). It set the tune for the rest of the nineteenth century: whereas Orientalists and Christian theologians deconstructed the Bible and left little of the life of Jesus and the founding myths of Christianity, they were quite naive towards the sources on early Islam. The German Julius Wellhausen (1844—1918) is another example of this type of Orientalist. He hypercritically dissected the Hebrew Bible, but was rather uncritical when it came to accepting Islamic tradition. These old-style Orientalists left no room for a divine inspiration of the Qurʾān or for miracles, and since Ignaz Goldziher (1850—1921) they had a keen eye for political or doctrinal tendencies in the sources. But when texts contradicted each other, they eliminated the less likely ones and assumed that there was enough left to reconstruct the historical past «as it had really been.»

This was strongly doubted by Caetani, who edited a synopsis (Annali; 1905-7) of all early sources known at the time, which was preceded by a critical introduction. Henri Lammens (1862—1937) was equally sceptical. He considered the whole sīra dependent on the Qurʾān and therefore historically unreliable. The period after the First World War in Europe was unfavourable for critical sīra studies (see post-Enlightenment academic study of the Qurʾān). The wave of scepticism seemed over and the quest for «what had really happened» was resumed. Scholarly biographies of Muḥammad were written, the apogee of which was the monumental work by Watt, which appeared in the 1950s (Mecca; Medina).

The belief in the usefulness of sīra texts for historiography was shaken in the seventies by a new wave of criticism and scepticism. Wansbrough dated the Qurʾān much later than did all others, and applied «source criticism» to the sīra, as had been done with the Bible, analysing the various literary genres and the purposes they served. Crone and Cook, in their controversial Hagarism (1977), continued this literary approach. Moreover, they displayed a fundamental distrust of Islamic tradition and brought forward the hitherto neglected extra-Islamic sources — a line of research further pursued by Hoyland in Seeing Islam — and had a keen eye for the material, economic, and geographical realities of the Arabian lands (see trade and commerce; economics; caravan). In her Meccan trade (1987), Crone reduced the legendary Meccan trade republic, and thereby the rise of Islam, to realistic proportions.

A lasting outcome of modern research has been the awareness of many sīra genres as literature. Sīra narratives are neither police records nor eyewitness reports, nor transcripts of things said, but are structured along the lines of sometimes long-established literary patterns. They belong to certain genres and, as all literature, display a good deal of intertextuality. In general one might say that the more intertextuality an account reveals, the less likely a source it is for historiography (see history and the Qurʾān; literature and the Qurʾān). A text that originated on a biblical or Qurʾānic base or along the pattern of a hagiography can be used for the history of ideas in their time of origin, but not for that of the events that are represented. Equally unusable are texts that want to preach or to glorify. Some of the genres (documents, genealogy, «merits») present themselves as historical sources, but even they are of limited use for historiography in the modern sense. The sīra as a whole is a vehicle of salvation history rather than scientific history.

A post-sceptical attitude, no longer keen on deconstruction, is found with Rubin, in whose book «the effort to isolate the ‘historical’ from the ‘fictional’ in the early Islamic texts is given up entirely» (Rubin, Eye, 3), and with Schöller, to whom any historical information that might be found in the sīra would be «a by-product, in a way, within the complex process that resulted in the formation of the prophetic biography» (Exegetisches Denken, 36). A certain nostalgia for «a true historical biography of the Prophet» can be heard in Schoeler, Charakter, and in Motzki (Biography, 233), which does not prevent them from applying fully up-to-date research methods. Peters shows himself well aware of the nature of the sources and at the same time gropes his way towards a biography (Peters, Origins). To non-Muslims the idea that little might be known about Muḥammad may be slightly disturbing, but not more than that. To Muslims, the problem has a different dimension. Of old, the sīra had less prestige than ḥadīth, yet undermining the historicity of the sīra may well be felt as an attack on the religion itself. It would be most important to take note of what present-day Muslims have brought forward on the subject, but unfortunately a survey or study of modern Muslim attitudes towards sīra criticism is still lacking.

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(see also the bibliographies of the articles expeditions and battles; Muḥammad)

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Cite this page

Wim Raven, «Sīra and the Qurʾān [Supplement 2016]», in: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC. Consulted online on 05 January 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQCOM_050498>