Methodology of Writing the Biography of the Prophet among Narrators and Historians: Al-Zuhri, Ibn Ishaq and Al-Waqidi as a Model: An Applied Theoretical Study

Abstract

The study deals with defining the Prophet’s biography and the science of al-Maghazi ‘military campaigns of the Prophet‘ and explaining the term Al-Isnad Al-Jamaee ’ collective chain of transmission’ used by hadith scholars and historians in the narration of the biography of the prophet. Then it discusses the most important differences between hadith scholars and historians in the writing of the Prophet’s biography, the reasons for incomplete transmission in its narration, the authenticity of these narrations and sometimes their priority andpopularity among other authentic narrations. The study presents a brief introduction of the most famous biographers, namely Imam Al-Zuhri, Ibn Ishaq and Al-Waqidi. It also discusses the approaches they followed in narrating the Prophet's biography and the characteristics of the writings of each one of them. The study concludes with examples for the theoretical part. It presents the judgment of Saad Ibn Muadh, on the Jews of Bani Qurayza. It also presents another example about the number of the Prophet companions in the Battle of Badr. The study shows the differences between the three Imams in presenting these events and highlights the characteristics of their narrations in a practical way.