Refinement of Ibn Hisham's biography

Author's name: Abu Muhammad Abd al-Malik ibn Hisham al-Khamiri al-Ansari, known as Ibn Hisham

Short biography: Abdul Salam Haroun

Tahdhib Sirat Ibn Ishaq is a modern book written by the late Abd al-Salam Harun, in which he excluded things that are not related to the core biography of the Prophet, such as the names of the prisoners of Badr, the names of the Muslims' horses at Badr, and similar narrative matters, long poems, lengthy genealogies, and linguistic digressions. He said: (I only mentioned from the chains of transmission what was necessary to establish the text, and I took care to verify all of those texts and to explain what needed clarification, relying on the commentators of the biography). His book was published in Ramadan of the year 1374 AH. As for the biography of Ibn Hisham, which he refined, it is the most famous work written on the biography of the Prophet, peace be upon him. It was printed for the first time in Göttingen in 1858 AD under the supervision of the German Wustenfeld. It was abridged by Ibn Hisham, who died on 13 Rabi` al-Akhir 218 AH, from the book Al-Maghāzī wa al-Siyar by Ibn Ishaq (d. 151 AH). Ibn Ishaq had compiled his book for the Abbasid Caliph al-Mahdi, by order of Abu Ja`far al-Mansur. In it, he mentioned the stories of creation from Adam (peace be upon him) until the death of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Ibn Hisham omitted what happened before Ishmael (peace be upon him) and what did not pertain to the forefathers of the Prophet (peace be upon him) from the stories of the sons of Ishmael, and what was not mentioned by the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) or revealed in the Qur’an. He left out some poems mentioned by Ibn Ishaq, which he did not see any scholar of poetry who knew them, and other things: some of which are disgraceful to talk about, some of which people find unpleasant to mention, and some of which al-Baka’i did not acknowledge as a narrator. Al-Baka’i was Ibn Hisham’s sheikh from whom he narrated Ibn Ishaq’s biography. Sections of Ibn Ishaq’s biography have reached us through another narration, the narration of Yunus ibn Bakir, including a piece of (300) pages in Al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, and another in Al-Zahiriyah in Damascus (see Sozkin, History of Heritage, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, p. 89). Ibn Ishaq’s biography has narrators other than Al-Bakai and Ibn Bakir. Mutaa Al-Tarabishi brought it to (61) narrators in his book (Narrators of the Battles and Biographies). Al-Tanahi said in his summary: (And in the library of Al-Qarawiyyin there is also a copy of Ibn Hisham’s biography, in a valuable Andalusian pen, written in the year (719 AH), and in its margins there are valuable objections and restrictions. The third part is from another copy, in an old Andalusian pen, on spun parchment. Copies of all of this are in the Institute of Manuscripts in Cairo). Ibn al-Nadim said in his discussion of Ibn Ishaq: “Poems were composed for him, and brought to him, and he was asked to include them in the biography, and he did so. He included in his book poetry what became a scandal among the narrators of poetry.” Al-Fihrist 136. Ibn Salam noted this in “Tabaqat al-Shu’ara’” and mentioned that he narrated poetry as far back as ‘Ad and Thamud, then he said: “Will he not come back to himself and say: Who carried this poetry, and who recited it thousands of years ago?” Ibn Hisham confirmed some of this poetry and then denied it, such as the poem of Abu Bakr, Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas, Hamza, and Abu Jahl. Scholars have many objections and warnings about the biography of Ibn Ishaq, including what he mentioned that the companions of Al-Raji’ were six men, while in Al-Bukhari they are ten, and that the companions of Bir Ma’unah were forty men, while in Al-Bukhari they are seventy, and what he mentioned about the brotherhood of the Prophet (peace be upon him) with Ali (may God be pleased with him) was denied by Ibn Kathir in (Al-Bidayah 3/227) as he denied what he mentioned about the brotherhood of Ja’far and Mu’adh, saying: (Ja’far was in Abyssinia at the time of the brotherhood). Al-Qifti said: “This biography that Ibn Hisham narrates on the authority of Ibn Ishaq has been edited in places, sometimes by additions and sometimes by subtractions, and it is now known only as Ibn Hisham’s biography.” Ibn Hisham’s biography has many abridgements and two Andalusian commentaries: “Al-Rawdh Al-Anf” by Al-Suhayli (d. 581 AH) and “Al-Imla’ Al-Mukhtasar” by Abu Dharr Al-Khashani (d. 604 AH). See in the magazine “Al-Turath Al-Arabi” (The Prophet’s Biography in Andalusian Heritage) by Radwan Al-Dayah (Issue 1, p. 69). In the magazine “Alam Al-Kutub” (Alam Al-Kutub: Vol. 2, p. 442) “The Prophet’s Biography in Turkish Literature” by Masoud Suwailem Al-Shaman. And in the magazine “Al-Wathiqa” (Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 36) there is an investigation into his letters that are available to this day.