Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar al-Muttalibi (; circa.699-768, known simply as Ibn Ishaq, was an 8th-century Muslim historian and hagiographer who collected oral traditions that formed the basis of an important biography of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. His biography is known as the Al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah, and it has mainly survived through several recensions.
Born in Medina c.704AD (A.H. 85), ibn Isḥaq's grandfather was YasÃÂr ibn Khiyar (according to some ibn Khabbar, Kuman or Kutan), one of forty Christian or Jewish boys who had been held captive in a monastery at Ayn al-Tamr. After being found in one of Khalid ibn al-Walid's campaigns, YasÃÂr was taken to Medina and enslaved to Qays ibn Makhrama ibn al-Muá¹Âá¹Âalib ibn ÿAbd ManÃÂf ibn Quá¹£ayy. On his conversion to Islam, he was manumitted as "mawlÃÂ" (client), thus acquiring the surname, or "nisbat", al-Muá¹Âá¹Âalibë. His three sons, Mà «sÃÂ, ÿAbd al-RaḥmÃÂn, and IsḥÃÂq, were transmitters of "akhbÃÂr", i.e. they collected and recounted written and oral testaments of the past. IsḥÃÂq married the daughter of another mawlàand from this marriage Ibn IsḥÃÂq was born.
No facts of Ibn IsḥÃÂq's early life are known, but it is likely that he followed in the family tradition of transmission of early akhbÃÂr and hadith. He was influenced by the work of ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, who praised the young ibn Ishaq for his knowledge of "maghÃÂzë" (stories of military expeditions). Around the age of 30, ibn Isḥaq arrived in Alexandria and studied under Yazëd ibn Abë Ḥabëb. After his return to Medina, based on one account, he was ordered out of Medina for attributing a hadith to a woman he had not met, FÃÂá¹Âima bint al-Mundhir, the wife of HishÃÂm ibn ÿUrwa. But those who defended him, like Sufyan ibn ýUyaynah, 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 "al-IrÃÂq", stopping in Kufa, also al-Jazëra, and into Iran as far as Ray, before returning west. Eventually he settled in Baghdad. There, the new Abbasid dynasty, having overthrown the Umayyad dynasty, 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 commissioned him to write an all-encompassing history book starting from the creation of Adam to the present day, known as "al-Mubtadaþ wa al-Baÿth wa al-MaghÃÂzë" (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 survive. He died in Baghdad in 767.
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 Sëratu Rasà «li l-LÃÂh ( "Life of the Messenger of God") and survive mainly in the following sources:
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-Ḥarranë and Yà «nus ibn Bukayr, were hitherto unknown and contain versions different from those found in other works.
The original text of the Sërat Rasà «l AllÃÂh by Ibn Ishaq did not survive. However, much of the original text was copied over into a work of his own by Ibn Hisham (Basra; Fustat, died 833 AD).
Ibn Hisham also "abbreviated, annotated, and sometimes altered" the text of Ibn Ishaq, according to Guillaume (on p. 17). 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 (on p. 31) 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 pp. 109âÂÂ690).
Notable scholars like the jurist Ahmad ibn Hanbal appreciated his efforts in collecting sëra narratives and accepted him on maghÃÂzë, despite having reservations on his methods on matters of fiqh. Ibn Ishaq also influenced later sëra writers like Ibn HishÃÂm and Ibn Sayyid al-NÃÂs. Other scholars, like Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya, made use of his chronological ordering of events.
The most widely discussed criticism of his sëra was that of his contemporary MÃÂlik ibn Anas. MÃÂlik 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" (gharÃÂþib) later by ibn Hajar al-Asqalani. MÃÂlik and others also thought that ibn IsḥÃÂq exhibited Qadari tendencies, had a preference for Ali (Guillaume also found evidence of this, pp. 22 &24), and relied too heavily on what were later called the IsrÃÂ'ëlëyÃÂt. Furthermore, early literary critics, like ibn SallÃÂm al-Jumaḥë and ibn al-Nadëm, censured ibn IsḥÃÂq 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-Dhahabë, using hadith terminology, noted that in addition to the forged (makdhà «b) poetry, Ibn IsḥÃÂq filled his sëra with munqaá¹Âiÿ (broken chain of narration) and munkar (suspect narrator) reports.
Guillaume notices that Ibn IsḥÃÂq 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. 19), Guillaume suggests that Ibn IsḥÃÂq deliberately substitutes the ordinary term "ḥaddathanë" (he narrated to me) by a word of suspicion "zaÿama" ("he alleged") to show his skepticism about certain traditions (p. 20).
Michael Cook laments that comparing Ibn Ishaq with the later commentator Al-Waqidi â who based his writing on Ibn Ishaq but added much colorful but made-up detail â reveals how oral history can be contaminated by the fiction of storytellers (qussa). "We have seen what half a century of story-telling could achieve between Ibn Ishaq and al-Waqidi, at a time when we know that much material had already been committed to writing. What the same processes may have brought about in the century before Ibn Ishaq is something we can only guess at."
Cook's fellow revisionist Patricia Crone complains that Sërat is full of "contradictions, confusions, inconsistencies and anomalies," written "not by a grandchild, but a great grandchild of the Prophet's generation", that it is written from the point of view of the ulama and Abbasid, so that "we shall never know ... how the Umayyad caliphs remembered their prophet".
In 1864 the Heidelberg professor Gustav Weil published an annotated German translation in two volumes. Several decades later the Hungarian scholar Edward Rehatsek prepared an English translation, but it was not published until over a half-century later.
The best-known translation in a Western language is Alfred Guillaume's 1955 English translation, 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).
Ibn Isḥaq wrote several works. His major work is al-Mubtadaþ wa al-Baÿth wa al-MaghÃÂzëâÂÂthe Kitab al-Mubtada and Kitab al-Mab'ath both survive in part, particularly al-Mab'ath, and al-Mubtada otherwise in substantial fragments. He is also credited with the lost works KitÃÂb al-khòulafÃÂþ, which al-Umawwë related to him (Fihrist, 92; UdabÃÂþ, VI, 401) and a book of Sunan (ḤÃÂdòjòdòjòë Ḵhòalëfa, II, 1008).
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£adà «q). However, a general analysis of his isnads has given him the negative distinction of being a mudallis, meaning one who did not always name his teacher, claiming instead to narrate directly from his teacher's teacher.
Others, like Ahmad ibn Hanbal, rejected his narrations on all matters related to fiqh. Al-Dhahabë concluded that the soundness of his narrations regarding ahadith is hasan, except in hadith where he is the sole transmitter which should probably be considered as munkar. He added that some Imams mentioned him, including Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, who cited five of Ibn Ishaq's ahadith in his Sahih.