Table Of ContentHADITHS AS HISTORICAL SOURCES FOR
A BIOGRAPHY OF THE PROPHET
Akira GOTO*
I
The term hadith is used today in both a narrow and broad sense. In
the narrow sense of the term, hadiths are traditions that have been incorpo-
rated into Islamic law. It is well known that al-Shafi'i (d. 820) ranked
such hadiths in the highest position of legal authority next to the Qur'an to
guide his followers. As far as they have been admitted as the basis of law,
hadith should be considered as valid and true (sahih) traditions, but by the
middle of the ninth century, hadith had multiplied into the hundreds of
thousands of items. Most of them were considered quite spurious, "weak"
or "infirm" so it is said, forcing legal scholars to develop a methodology for
selecting just which ones were valid for Islamic law. As a result, several
collections of "valid" hadiths were compiled, giving rise to the narrow, legal
meaning of the term referring to the traditions that were selected for these
authorized collections.
adith H in the broader sense therefore indicates the whole body of nar-
ratives and commentary on Muhammad that have been handed down through
Islamic history. These traditions provide information about the Prophet, the
people who lived during his generation, and the society of the time. The
present paper will deal with hadiths in this latter sense as sources for study-
ing the life of Muhammad and his times. Originally oral in nature, these
hadiths have been collected without regard to validity in such work as al-
sira al-nabawiya by Ibn Ishaq.
Since the eleventh century in which the science of Islamic law became
a key part of Islamic learning, the value of valid hadith has been greatly
enhanced. Even Ibn Taymiya (d. 1328), a thinker who tried to understand
Islam by strictly going back to its starting point, undoubtedly recognized
*professor, the University of Tokyo
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HADITHS AS HISTORICAL SOURCES FOR A BIOGRAPHY OF THE PROPHET
hadiths recorded in al-sahihayn by al-Bukhari (d. 870) and Muslim (d. 875)
as true valid. On the other hand, western scholars of Islam have expressed
doubts from the standpoint of the modern science of history about valid
hadiths judged to be traditionally correct and some of them have criticized
these hadiths as inaccurate ones concerning the words and deeds of the
Prophet. Predating such doubts, however, were muslim intellectuals who
themselves did not agree with how valid hadiths were selected.
According to al-fihrist (The Bibliography) by Ibn al-Nadim (d. 990), the
works of Ibn Ishaq (d. 767), the biographer of Muhammad (sahib al-sira),
were not rated very highly. Ibn al-Nadim asserted that it was impossible
for Ibn Ishaq to get information directly from Fatima bint al-Mundhir, one
of his important "informants." Moreover, Ibn al-Nadim indicates that the
poems cited in Ibn Ishaq's works were written only for his works, that they
include many genealogical errors, and that there are many mistakes due to
over-reliance on information from Christians and Jews.
Ibn al-Nadim's criticism of Ibn Ishaq was in common with people like
al-Bukhari, who sought for valid traditions. Al-Bukhari would not admit a
hadith to be valid merely because the name of Ibn Ishaq was written in its
isnad. Most of the hadiths that passed through the hands of Ibn Ishaq were
estimated to be "weak" (da'if), or at most good (hasan). Therefore, the
authorized six collections of valid hadith contain few hadiths gathered by
Ibn Ishaq and recorded in his al-sira al-nabawiya.
In this way Ibn Ishaq was ignored by the editors of the authorized
collections of the ninth century and criticized severely by Ibn al-Nadim, a
bibliographer of the tenth century. Was Ibn Ishaq therefore forgotten by
Islamic society in the tenth century? The answer is no.
Five collections of valid traditions were compiled in the latter part of
the ninth century, and al-Nasa'i compiled the sixth at the beginning of the
tenth century. It was at this time that a great scholar, al-Tabari (d. 923)
became known to the world. In his al-fihrist, Ibn al-Nadim introduced al-
Tabari in the sixth chapter concerning legal scholars and called him, with
admiration, "a wise man," "a leader of the age," and "a legal scholar of
the age." He was appreciated highly as an authority on hadith even during
his lifetime (cf. Ibn Hajar) and also during the second half of the tenth
century. Today, however, al-Tabari is not generally known as a legal
scholar, but rather as the author of voluminous works, called tafsir (cf. al-
Vol. XXX-XXXI 1995 83
Tabari: Tafsir) and ta'rikh, which covered history from the time of Adam
to the beginning of the tenth century (cf. al-Tabari: Ta'rikh). It is also
true that he cited many hadiths recorded in Ibn Ishaq's al-sira al-nabawiya,
showing that this renowned legal scholar of the tenth century did not reject
Ibn Ishaq.
There were other people besides al-Tabari who held Ibn Ishaq's works
in high estimation. Both Ibn Qutayba (d. 889) and al-Baladhuri (d. 892),
intellectuals in the days when the six collections were compiled, are often
found quoting Ibn Ishaq. In a period of one or two generations prior to
them, Ibn Ishaq was an important source of information for al-Waqidi (d.
822) and his follower Ibn Sa'd (d. 845), while Ibn Hisham (d. 833) revised
Ibn Ishaq's al-sira al-nabawiya, omitting unnecessary information and criti-
cizing the quoted poetry.
In sum, there were two different currents among muslim scholars in
the ninth century concerning the works of Ibn Ishaq, who was active in
the middle of the previous century. One was the group of people who
sought for valid hadiths and did not hold Ibn Ishaq in very high estimation.
The other group consisted of those who used Ibn Ishaq's works as sources
for the books they wrote.
Therefore, is it accurate to say that intellectuals like al-Tabari, who
quoted "weak" hadiths from Ibn Ishaq, totally believed in him? The answer
may be no.
At present, we can not find a complete version of Ibn Ishaq's al-sira
al-nabawiya. Many copies of the book must have existed for some time,
but now, all of them have become scattered or lost. We only have about
two-thirds of his works, through the al-sira al-nabawiya fortunately revised
by Ibn Hisham and quoted passages by al-Tabari and others. However, Ibn
Hisham himself seemed not to intend to hand down Ibn Ishaq's al-sira
al-nabawiya to posterity, but was intent on diminishing the bad effects
caused by the spread of the original versions. He eliminated doubtful, un-
believable and useless parts from the original and made notes on the quoted
poetry. Ibn Hisham seems not to have much appreciated the scholarship
of Ibn Ishaq.
It is clear that al-Tabari did not stress accuracy when writing his
tafsir and ta'rikh. In his tafsir, when explaining verses from the qur'an, he
would include various contradictory hadiths. In other words, it is impossible
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HADITHS AS HISTORICAL SOURCES FOR A BIOGRAPHY OF THE PROPHET
to pursue what may be the correct explanation of each verse of the qur'an
using al-Tabari's tafsir. On the contrary, one may find various interpreta-
tions of the qur'an through his work. His ta'rikh also contains various
hadiths describing various historical events, that are contradictory in regard
to such basic data as dates and the names of places and people. Hadiths
cited from Ibn Ishaq, in most cases, were recorded as possible contradictory
examples. In fact, al-Tabari quoted hadiths from Ibn Ishaq's works, not
because he judged them to be correct, but because he wanted his readers
to estimate the value of each hadith for themselves.
Both tafsir and ta'rikh by al-Tabari were voluminous works, but they
did not contain all of the hundreds of thousands hadiths which seemed to be
current at that time. Al-Tabari selected hadith carefully, though he does
not indicate his criteria for his selection. He probably chose them relying
upon his own experiential intuition. Al-Tabari's view about hadiths seemed
to be the same as Ibn Ishaq's. Ibn Ishaq often introduced a few contradic-
tory hadiths about a certain historical event, concluding that only God knew
which one was correct. He also did not apparently consider all of the hadiths
in his al-sira al-nabawiya to be correct. However, he did not discuss how to
select hadiths from among his extensive collection either. He must have
used what could be called his "synthetic judgement."
The present writer is in no position to evaluate the results of efforts
made by various people to put restrictions on the number and the contents
of hadiths in their eagerness to find legally valid hadith, but it may well be
that we will come across very few valid hadiths interesting enough to include
in a body of historical materials for the biographical study of Muhammad
and an investigation of the society in which he lived. On the other hand,
it is useful for us to know about the existence of such people as Ibn Ishaq
and al-Tabari, who gathered hadiths extensively without regard to their ac-
curacy when compiling books, even though they were selective according
to their own discretion. Many of those various and interesting hadiths will
be the subject of this paper.
II
Both western scholars of Islamic studies and present day muslim scho-
lars have relied on various hadiths recorded in Ibn Ishaq's al-sira al-nabawiya
Vol. XXX-XXXI 1995 85
and books of others including al-Tabari when studying the life of Muhammad
and Arab society of his time. It took Patricia Crone, however, to suggest
that such a pursuit may be all for naught in her Meccan Trade and the
Rise of Islam (cf. Crone: Meccan Trade, pp. 203ff., Part III: Conclusion, 9:
The Sources).
Crone examines the hadiths related to Chapter 106 of the qur'an called
sura quraysh as follows:
For the ilaf of Quraysh
their ilaf of the journey in winter and summer,
so worship the lord of this house,
who fed them against a hunger, and gave them security from a fear.
In the first place, Crone decries, what is "their ilaf of the journey in
winter and summer?" A certain hadith says it means "the hajj in dhu al-
hijja and the 'umra in rajab". Another says it is "the migrations of Quray-
sh to Ta'if in the summer and their return to Mecca if in the winter."
However, many hadiths say they are "trading journeys." Then, where did
they go? Various hadiths say various things. For example, "Quraysh would
travel by the hot coastal route to Ayla in the winter and by the cool inland
route to Busra and Adhri'at in the summer." "Quraysh would go to Syria
in the summer and to the Yemen in the winter, when Syria was too cold."
Quraysh would go to "Syria in the winter and the Yemen in the summer,
when the route to Syria was too hot." "They went to Syria and Ethiopia."
"They went to Syria, the Yemen and Ethiopia; or to Syria and Rum, on
the one hand, and the Yemen and Ethiopia, on the other; or to Syria, the
Yemen, Ethiopia, and Iraq."
The third verse of the chapter, "so worship the lord of this house",
relates to "journeys" and various reasons are mentioned why they worship.
They say "Quraysh are being told to worship God because He enabled
them to go on their journeys, thereby securing provisions for Mecca."
"They are being told to worship Him instead of travelling, the journeys
leaving them no time to do so." "They are being told to worship Him
because He put an end to these journeys, Ethiopians and/or others having
taken over the provisioning of Mecca."
What does it mean by "fed them against a hunger" in the fourth verse?
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HADITHS AS HISTORICAL SOURCES FOR A BIOGRAPHY OF THE PROPHET
It means "He enabled Quraysh to provision Mecca." And "this He did by
letting Hashim institute the two journeys, or by defeating the Ethiopans so
that they could continue to go on these journeys, at any rate by means of
these journeys." Others are "the verse refers to a specific famine in Mecca"
and "it was the pre-Islamic famine to which Hashim reacted by importing
bread from Syria". Or else it was the later famine with which Quraysh
were afflicted by God in response to Muhammad's prayer." "In Pre-Islamic
times when impoverished families would withdraw to the desert until they
died: Hashim put an end to this practice by instituting the two trading
journeys."
What Crone wants to say here is that there is much variety in hadiths
even how to explain this short chapter of the qur'an. Therefore, she argues
that it is impossible to understand the phrases of the qur'an correctly and
to gather historical facts from hadiths
We should admit Crone's gallant efforts to collect various hadiths on
the theme, but we can easily find out that there are many contradictory
hadiths in explaining these verses of the qur'an, if we just open the related
pages of al-Tabari's tafsir. Al-Tabari of the tenth century, took it for
granted that he could not get the right meaning of each verse of the qur'-
n athrough the, hadiths. It was the premise of his learning.
It was also a matter of course among other muslim intellectuals at
that time. They understood that they could explain the verses of the qur'an
diversely by making most use of various hadiths. They noticed, on the
other hand, that it was difficult to define meanings of some terms appearing
in the qur'an (cf. Goto: Note II). In this context what Crone says is cor-
rect, but it does not mean that those hadiths or any other are of no value
as historical sources. Let us follow Crone's argument a little further.
It is needless to say that the motif of this chapter titled sura quraysh
is ilaf. Several hadiths concerning ilaf are recorded in the works of Ibn
Habib (d. 860) and al-Kala'i (d. 1237). According to these hadiths, Hashim, a
great-grandfather of Muhammad, went to Syria and received permission to
trade from the ruler there and then made ilaf agreements with people on
his way back home. Watt (cf. Watt: Mecca) and Hamidullah studied ilaf
on the basis of these hadiths. Watt considered the ilaf institution as the
basis of Meccan trade. And Hamidullah concluded that just before the rise
of Islam, Arabian society was unified under this institution and Mecca was
Vol. XXX-XXXI 1995 87
the center of financial operations. The present writer does not agree with
these assertions. Crone has also criticized them. She calls the above hadith
an "ilaf tradition" and doubts its value.
Crone says that most of the hadiths were created to interpret the
qur'an, and that the ilaf tradition was created by Ibn al-Kalbi (d. 820) in
order to explain the term ilaf which is contained only in Chapter 106. If
there were not the word ilaf in the qur'an, the "ilaf tradition" would not
have existed and later Islamicists would not have created the "ilaf institu-
tion".
As Crone insists, among a great number of the hadiths explaining
Meccan trader movements in the time of Muhammad, we find no hadith
concerning trade carried out under the "ilaf institution." Hadiths concerning
ilaf are only the "ilaf tradition" which Crone points out, though its story
varies slightly from book to book (cf. Kister: Tamim). There is no eviden-
ce that Ibn al-Kalbi created the "ilaf tradition", but it may well be that
someone collected various hadiths and made a story from them.
In the hadiths the word ilaf is used in the context of the activities of
Hashim and people of his generation. Therefore, in the time of Muhammad
ilaf was probably not an established institution for Meccan people. Intellec-
tuals such as Ibn Ishaq and al-Tabari do not cite the ilaf tradition in their
works, because they might not have judged it to be a trustworthy criterion
in selecting their hadiths.
Crone assumes that storytellers (qass) were behind Ibn al-Kalbi's crea-
tions. She says that the qur'an exegesis in the early period was not a
product of learning, like al-Tabari's tafsir in the later days, but merely a
collection of narratives told by storytellers. And she takes tafsir by Muqatil
b. Sulayman (d. 767) or al-Kalbi (d. 763), Ibn al-Kalbi's father, as a typical
qur'an exegesis in the early period. She thinks that the words of storytell-
ers have no value as historical materials, the "ilaf tradition" being a typical
example.
J. Wansbrough has already pointed in his book Quranic Studies that
most of the hadiths interpreting the qur'an were completed in a certain form
by storytellers. Jones also demonstrates that the hadiths of Ibn Ishaq and
al-Waqidi were mostly based on storytellers (of Jones).
Some hundreds of thousands of hadiths with a certain length and nar-
rative style in the ninth century might have been arranged by storytellers
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HADITHS AS HISTORICAL SOURCES FOR A BIOGRAPHY OF THE PROPHET
in the seventh and eighth centuries. Crone's argument is valid so far, but
it would be rash to conclude that qass created stories without foundation,
and that their stories have no value as historical sources.
III
After the ninth century, biographies of people who handed down hadiths
began to be complied in a form arranged by generation. According to at
least one such collection written by Ibn Sa'd, the first and second genera-
tions of tabi'un had not yet edited any tafsir or any maghazi, but they
started gathering traditions composed mainly of genealogies.
Ibn al-Nadim introduced books on "history" in Chapter 3 of his al-fihri
st. He named Ziyad b. Abihi as the first person who wrote a book on "his-
tory." Ziyad b. Abihi was a famous bureaucrat in the time of Mu'awiya
and was borne by a prostitute. It was known later that Mu'awiya confessed
that his father, Abu Sufyan, was Ziyad b. Abihi's real father. Ibn al-Nadim
said that Ziyad b. Abihi wrote a book about his birth for his offspring.
Ibn al-Nadim continued to introduce many persons, such as Daghfal, a
genealogist (al-nassab) who was already active at the time of Muhammad
and visited Mu'awiya as a delegate, al-Bakri, a Christian genealogist, Wiqa'
b. al-'Ash'ar, the most proud genealogist, 'Ubayd b. Sharya who was from
the Jurhum tribe of Yemen and invited by Mu'awiya, Suhar al-'Abdi who
belonged to the 'Uthman party then to the Khariji sect, al-Shargi b. al-
Qatami, and Ibn al-Kawwa' of the 'Ali party.
Under such titles as al-nassabun and ashab al-akhbar, Ibn Qutayba named
almost the same people as Ibn al-Nadim chose. In the latter part of the
seventh century, nobody was active among people grouped under the names
of ashab al-hadith, ashab al-qira'at and ruwat al-shi'r by Ibn Qutayba. They
took an active part later.
In the time of political chaos and transition during and after the first
and second civil wars, each muslim must have wanted to establish his own
social identity. For an Arab a genealogy was most important to prove his
identity. Since the names of his father and ancestors were a part of his
name, he thought he would become one with his father and ancestors. He
tried to survive in a changing society by showing who he was. If his
father was a muslim from an earlier time and participated in battles with
Vol. XXX-XXXI 1995 89
Muhammad, he could make the most use of his background to strengthen
his political and social status. Then, he could ask for protection of rights
which could be easily taken away in a disordered society. A nomadic
Arab whose father had participated actively in a battle of conquest could
attempt to secure various rights including receiving a pension according to
his family record.
As for a tabi'un, who had nothing to do with Muhammad, no other
information was more important than a genealogy traced back to ance-
stors who had some connection with Muhammad, his companions, or the
leaders in the time of conquest.
In the same way, it was necessary for political leaders like Mu'awiya,
who tried to manage an disordered Arab society, to have information on
each Arab's genealogy. Abu Bakr, the first caliph, was famous for his large
personal body of information on Arab genealogies. He was the one who
had to organize Arabs for the battle of ridda. After the wars of conquest,
when muslim society was split, leaders-to-be wanted experts on genealogy
around them.
Authorities on nasab mentioned in al-fihrist were at the same time also
experts on both akhbar and poetry. Nasab not only means genealogy, but
also a collection of records concerning ancestors' achievements (akhbar)
and poetry, the form in which genealogies and akhbar were explained and
confirmed.
We can not find any books written by the early authorities on the
nasab recorded in al-fihrist. However, it is known that a part of Ibn Ishaq's
al-sira al-nabawiya, written in the middle of the eighth century, consisted
of hadiths that included genealogies, akhbar and poetry. On the other hand,
in the works of Ibn Sa'd and Ibn Qutayba in the ninth century, most gene-
alogies were separated from akhbar and poetry. So it may well be said
that the form of early nasab remains in Ibn Ishaq's work.
Nasab was necessary for all muslims of that era. They desired nasab
to trace their ancestors back as early as possible and to find akhbar on the
battle of conquest after Muhammad's death. It is a matter of course that
the most important thing among akhbar were items about the battles led by
Muhammad and those of ridda and conquest, which have given muslims
proof of their various rights.
Since every muslim wanted his own nasab, there were many nasabs full
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HADITHS AS HISTORICAL SOURCES FOR A BIOGRAPHY OF THE PROPHET
of contradictions. One can always see a certain event from a different angle
owing to one's situation. Early oral tradition therefore, was not intended
to relate Muhammad's words and deeds, or the meaning of verses in the
qur'an. Rather, they were nasabs consisting of poems and historical infor-
mation, of which each muslim intended to make good use for confirming
his identity in a time of political turmoil. Therefore, as a whole, oral
tradition was inconsistent, but by no means incoherent.
IV
In the middle of the Umayya period, people still had an interest in
nasab due to social concerns apart form each muslim's personal and actual
interest. It was fashionable to choose information on some certain special
topics from the nasabs and compiled the information into one hadith. For
example one would choose the names from each akhbar which had something
to say about who had participated in battles led by Muhammad. A complete
list of names could be compiled, because every descendant of the participants
proudly recorded the fact in his nasabs. Thus, lists of participants, that
seem to have been compiled by some storeytellers through nasab of each
muslim as above mentioned, in various battles under the command of Muham-
mad have been handed down to the present.
It is known that in the first half of the eighth century several collections
of traditions called maghazi were compiled. Maghazi is a record of a battle
(ghazwa), but it does not mean that only. The original title of the main
part of Ibn Ishaq's al-sira al-nabawiya was probably maghazi. Likewise,
akhbar on Muhammad's life or his ancestors was called maghazi. Some
maghazis seemed to have embraced events from the time of Muhammad at
least to the era of conquest (cf. E. I. n. e. qv. al-maghazi). Maghazi is, as
it were, "historiography" of muslim society.
Before Ibn Ishaq, the following persons are known as the writers of
maghazis: 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr (d. 712); Wahb b. Munabbih (d. 728); Shurahbil
b. Sa'd (d. 741); al-Zuhri (d. 742); and Musa b. 'Uqba (d. 758). Their works
have been lost. However, Ibn Ishaq obtained information from their maghazis
(except Musa b. 'Uqba, his rival), when he compiled his al-sira al-nabawiya.
Muslim intellectuals of the first half of eighth century wrote "histories"
of various groups of tribes based on the nasab of each muslim. They were
Vol. XXX-XXXI 1995 91
Description:According to al-fihrist (The Bibliography) by Ibn al-Nadim (d. 990), the true that he cited many hadiths recorded in Ibn Ishaq's al-sira al-nabawiya,.
