Article
The sources for the Prophet's life
Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Hisham, al-Waqidi and the hadith collections — what each is, how they differ, and how historians weigh them.
The earliest layer
Ibn Ishaq's biography survives mainly through Ibn Hisham's recension, which is itself an edit. Knowing that a source reaches us through an editor is not a reason to discard it; it is a reason to read it as what it is.
Hadith and seerah are different genres
Hadith collections were assembled under a stricter chain-of-transmission standard than the biographies. Where the two disagree, that difference in standard is usually the reason.
Editorial Team
Written and reviewed by the Mimangsha editorial team.