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This is a chronological listing of biographies of the Islamicprophet, Muhammad, from the earliest traditional writers to modern times.
Number of biographies
The literature is extensive: in the Urdu language alone, a scholar from Pakistan in 2024 came up with a bibliography of more than 10,000 titles counting multivolume works as a single book and without taking into account articles, short essays or unpublished manuscripts, with the author also precising that the literature in Arabic is even more important.
Earliest biographers
The following is a list of the earliest known Hadith collectors who specialized in collecting Sīra and Maghāzī reports.
Saʿīd ibn Saʿd ibn ʿUbāda al-Khazrajī, another young companion, whose writings have survived in the Musnad of Ibn Hanbal and Abī ʿIwāna, and al-Tabari's Tārīkh.
ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. 713). He wrote letters replying to inquiries of the Umayyad caliphs, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan and al-Walid I, involving questions about certain events that happened in the time of Muhammad. Since Abd al-Malik did not appreciate the maghāzī literature, these letters were not written in story form. According to Wim Raven, He is not known to have written any books on the subject. He was a grandson of Abu Bakr and the younger brother of Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr.
ʿĀmir ibn Sharāḥīl al-Shaʿbī (d. 103 AH), his traditions were transmitted through Abu Isḥāq al-Subaiʿī, Saʿīd ibn Masrūq al-Thawrī, al-Aʿmash, Qatāda, Mujālid ibn Saʿīd, and others.
Al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr (d. 107AH), another grandson of Abu Bakr. His traditions are mainly found in the works of al-Tabari, al-Balathuri, and al-Waqidi.
Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī (d. c.737), a central figure in sīra literature, who collected both ahadith and akhbār. His akhbār also contain chains of transmissions, or isnad. He was sponsored by the Umayyad court and asked to write two books, one on genealogy and another on maghāzī. The first was canceled and the one about maghāzī is either not extant or has never been written.
Musa ibn ʿUqba, a student of al-Zuhrī, who wrote Kitab al-Maghazi. It was lost after 14th century, but two-thirds of the book was rediscovered in 1921 after a manuscript was found.
Muhammad ibn Ishaq (d. 767 or 761), another student of al-Zuhrī, who collected oral traditions that formed the basis of an important biography of Muhammad. His work survived through that of his editors, most notably Ibn Hisham and Ibn Jarir al-Tabari.
Ibn Jurayj (d. 150 AH), has been described as a "contemporary" of Ibn Ishaq and "rival authority based in Mecca"
Abū Ishāq al-Fazarī (d. 186 AH) wrote Kitāb al-Siyar.
Al-Baghawi wrote al-Anwar fi Shama'il al-Nabi al-Mukhtar
Ibn Hazm wrote Jamawiʿ al-Sīra (The Sira Synopsis), an abridgement of the work of Ibn Abd al-Barr.
6th century of Hijrah (1109–1206 CE)
Abu al-Qasim al-Suhayli (d. 1185), a grammarian from Málaga, wrote al-Rawd al-unuf, a commentary on Ibn Hisham's biography explaining the difficult and ambiguous words.
7th century of Hijrah (1207–1303 CE)
Al-Kalāʿī of Valencia (d. 1236) wrote a three-volume biography called al-Iktifāʾ. It follows the structure of Ibn Ishaq's sira with additional traditions from various other works.
Abdul Mu'min al-Dimyati (d. 705AH/1305CE), wrote the book "al-Mukhtasar fi Sirati Sayyid Khair al-Bashar" but is commonly referred to as Sira of Al-Dimyati.
8th century of Hijrah (1304–1400 CE)
Fath al-Din Ibn Sayyid al-Nas (d. 1334), wrote a famous biography ʿUyūn al-athar fī funūn al-maghāzī wa al-shamāʾil wa al-siyar.
Mughulṭāy (d. 762/1361) wrote al-Zahr al-bāsim in several volumes and an abridged version called al-Ishāra ila sīrat al-musṭafa.
Ala'al-Din Ali ibn Muhammad Al-Khilati Hanafi, wrote Sirat of Al-Khilati.
Sheikh Zahir al-Din ibn Muhammad Gazaruni.
Abu-al-Faraj ibn Al-Jawzi, wrote books on Sira such as al-Wafa bi-ahwal al-Mustafa and Sharaf al-Mustafa (full title of book: Uyun al-hikayat fi Sirat Sayyid al-Bariyya).
Abu Rabi Sulaiman ibn Musa Al-Kala'i compiled a book titled "Iktifa fi Maghazi al-Mustafa wal-Khulafa al-Thalatha".
`Izzuddin ibn Badruddin ibn Jama`ah al-Kinani wrote al-Mukhtasar al-kabir fi Sirah al-Rasul.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab At-Tamimi An-Najdi wrote Mukhtasar Sirat Ar-Rasul, it is an abridgement of Sirat Ibn-e-Hisham. (available in Urdu PDF)
19th century CE
Histoire des Arabes avec la Vie de Mahomet (1731). Translation (s.d. 18th century) reprinted (2001) as The Life of Mohammad: Or The Life of Mahomet, Henri de Boulainvilliers. Kessinger Publishing's Rare Reprints ISBN0-7661-9102-8
William Muir, The Life of Muhammad and History of Islam to the Era of the Hegira (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1858–1861), 4vols. – several later editions with slightly different titles.
Aloys Sprenger, Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad: Nach bisher größtentheils unbenutzten Quellen (Berlin: Nicolai'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1861–1865), 3vols – a revised 2nd edition was published in 1869.
Muhammad Hamidullah wrote four books on Sira, Muhammad Rasulullah: A concise survey of the life and work of the founder of Islam (1979); The Prophet of Islam: Prophet of Migration (1989); The Prophet's establishing a state and his succession (1988); Battlefields of the Prophet Muhammad (1992).
Adil Salahi wrote Muhammad: man and prophet, a complete study of the life of the Prophet of Islam (Leicester: Islamic Foundation, 2012). ISBN978-0860374299
Lesley Hazleton wrote The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad (New York: Riverhead Books, 2013).
Muhammad Asadullah Al-Ghalib wrote Seeratur Rasool (SM) [The life of the Prophet Muhammad (SM)] in Bangla (Online link), First published in 2015 by Hadeeth Foundation Bangladesh.
Safvet Halilović, Životopis posljednjeg Allahovog poslanika (Biography of Allah's last messenger) (Sarajevo: El Kalem, 2019)
↑Al-Azraqi, Akhbar Makka, ed. Ferdinand Wüstenfeld (Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1858) 65, 1. 16: thumma raja'a ila hadith Ibn Jurayj wa-ibn Ishaq; quoted in book review by Conrad, Lawrence I. of "Making of the Last Prophet: A Reconstruction of the Earliest Biography of Muhammad by Gordon Darnell Newby", in Journal of the American Oriental Society, 113, n.2 258–263
↑Published from Lebanon, Beirut: Mu'assasa al-Risāla, 1987.
12345Fitzpatrick, Coeli; Walker, Adam Hani (2014-04-25). Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p.578,580. ISBN978-1-61069-178-9.