Abu Muhammad Abd al-Malik ibn Hisham ibn Ayyub al-Himyari (; died 7 May 833), known simply as Ibn Hisham, was a 9th-century Abbasid historian and scholar. He grew up in Basra, in modern-day Iraq and later moved to Egypt.
Ibn Hisham has been said to have grown up in Basra and moved afterwards to Egypt. His family was native to Basra but he himself was born in Old Cairo. He gained a name as a grammarian and student of language and history in Egypt. His family was of Himyarite origin and belonged to Banu MaâÂÂafir tribe of Yemen.
As-Sërah an-Nabawiyyah (), 'The Life of the Prophet'; is an edited recension of Ibn IsḥÃÂq's classic Sëratu Rasà «li l-LÃÂh () 'The Life of God's Messenger'. Ibn IsḥÃÂq's now lost work survives only in Ibn HishÃÂm's and al-Tabari's recensions, although fragments of several others survive, and Ibn HishÃÂm and al-Tabarë share virtually the same material.
Ibn HishÃÂm explains in the preface of the work, the criteria by which he made his choice from the original work of Ibn IsḥÃÂq in the tradition of his disciple ZiyÃÂd al-BaqqÃÂþi (d. 799). Accordingly, Ibn HishÃÂm omits stories from Al-Sërah that contain no mention of Muḥammad, certain poems, traditions whose accuracy ZiyÃÂd al-BaqqÃÂþi could not confirm, and offensive passages that could offend the reader. Al-Tabari includes controversial episodes of the Satanic Verses including an apocryphal story about Muḥammad's attempted suicide. Ibn HishÃÂm gives more accurate versions of the poems he includes and supplies explanations of difficult terms and phrases of the Arabic language, additions of genealogical content to certain proper names, and brief descriptions of the places mentioned in Al-Sërah. Ibn HishÃÂm appends his notes to the corresponding passages of the original text with the words: "qÃÂla Ibn HishÃÂm" (Ibn HishÃÂm says).
Later Ibn HishÃÂm's As-Sira would chiefly be transmitted by his pupil, Ibn al-Barqë. This treatment of Ibn IshÃÂq's work was circulated to scholars in Cordoba in Islamic Spain by around 864. The first printed edition was published in Arabic by the German orientalist Ferdinand Wüstenfeld, in Göttingen (1858-1860). The Life of Moḥammad According to Moḥammed b. IshÃÂq, ed. 'Abd al-Malik b. Hisham. Gustav Weil (Stuttgart 1864) was the first published translation.
In the 20th century the book has been printed several times in the Middle East. The German orientalist Gernot Rotter produced an abridged (about one third) German translation of The life of the Prophet. As-Sëra An-Nabawëya. (Spohr, Kandern in the Black Forest 1999). In 1955, the British orientalist Alfred Guillaume published an English translation with Oxford University Press titled The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of IsḥÃÂq's Sërat Rasà «l AllÃÂh.
Ibn Hisham also known as the author of the commentaries of The Book of Crowns on the Kings of Himyar. Ibn Hisham reported that he acquired the book narrative from 'Abd al-Mun'im Idris. Ibn Hisham, who authored the commentaries of this book, also gave his own analysis that the Yemen region name were given from their primordial founder, Ya'rub (son of Qahtan), who also known by his other name, "Yaman".