Muhammad

==Sources of biographical information==
{{Main|Historiography of early Islam|Historicity of Muhammad}}
[[File:Birmingham Quran manuscript.jpg|thumb|left|Two folios of the [[Birmingham Quran manuscript]], an [[Early Quranic manuscripts|early manuscript]] written in [[Hijazi script]] likely dated within Muhammad's lifetime between {{circa|568–645}}]]

===Quran===
{{Main|Muhammad in the Quran}}
The [[Quran]] is the central [[religious text]] of [[Islam]]. Muslims believe it represents the words of [[God in Islam|God]] revealed by the archangel [[Gabriel]] to Muhammad.<ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Qurʾān |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Quran |access-date=24 September 2013 |last=Nasr |first=Seyyed Hossein |date=2007 |author-link=Seyyed Hossein Nasr |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150505001543/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/487666/Quran |archive-date=5 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=LivRlgP338>''Living Religions: An Encyclopaedia of the World's Faiths'', Mary Pat Fisher, 1997, p. 338, I.B. Tauris Publishers.</ref><ref>{{qref|17|106|b=y}}</ref> The Quran is mainly addressed to a single "Messenger of God" who is referred to as Muhammad in a number of verses. The Quranic text also describes the settlement of his followers in [[Medina|Yathrib]] after their expulsion by the Quraysh, and briefly mentions military encounters such as the [[Battle of Badr|Muslim victory at Badr]].<ref name=":0">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Muhammad |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muhammad |access-date=4 February 2023 |last=Watt |first=William Montgomery |date=4 January 2024 |author-link=W. Montgomery Watt }}</ref>

The Quran, however, provides minimal assistance for Muhammad's chronological biography; most Quranic verses do not provide significant historical context and timeline.{{Sfn|Bennett|1998|p=18–19}}{{sfn|Peters|1994|p=261}} Almost none of Muhammad's [[Companions of the Prophet|companions]] are mentioned by name in the Quran, hence not providing sufficient information for a concise biography.<ref name=":0" /> The Quran is considered to be contemporary with Muhammad, and the [[Birmingham Quran manuscript|Birmingham manuscript]] has been [[Radiocarbon dating|radiocarbon dated]] to his lifetime, its discovery largely disproving [[Revisionist school of Islamic studies|Western revisionist theories]] about the Quran's origins.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bora |first=Fozia |date=2015-07-22 |title=Discovery of 'oldest' Qur'an fragments could resolve enigmatic history of holy text |url=http://theconversation.com/discovery-of-oldest-quran-fragments-could-resolve-enigmatic-history-of-holy-text-45066 |access-date=2024-02-04 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="Lumbard-24-7-2015">{{cite news |last1=Lumbard |first1=Joseph E. B. |author-link1=Joseph E. B. Lumbard |date=24 July 2015 |title=New Light on the History of the Quranic Text? |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/new-light-on-the-history_b_7864930 |access-date=24 March 2021 |agency=Huffington Post}}</ref>

===Early biographies===
{{Main|Prophetic biography}}
[[File:PERF No. 665.jpg|thumb|right|280x280px|An early manuscript of [[Ibn Hisham]]'s [[Al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah (Ibn Hisham)|a''l-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah'']], believed to have been transmitted by his students shortly after his death in 833]]
Important sources regarding Muhammad's life may be found in the historic works by writers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the [[Hijri year|Hijri era]] (around the 8th and 9th century CE respectively).{{sfn|Watt|1953|p=xi}} These include traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad, which provide additional information about his life.<ref name="Reeves">{{cite book |last=Reeves |first=Minou|author-link=Minou Reeves |date= 2003|title= [[Muhammad in Europe]]: A Thousand Years of Western Myth-Making |url= |location= |publisher=[[New York University Press]] |pages=6–7 |isbn= 0814775640}}</ref>

The earliest written ''sira'' (biographies of Muhammad and quotes attributed to him) is [[Ibn Ishaq]]'s ''[[Prophetic biography|Life of God's Messenger]]'' written c. 767 CE (150 AH). Although the original work was lost, this ''sira'' survives as extensive excerpts in works by [[Ibn Hisham]] and to a lesser extent by [[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari|Al-Tabari]].{{sfn|Nigosian|2004|p=6}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Donner |first=Fred |author-link=Fred Donner |date= 1998|title=[[Narratives of Islamic Origins]]: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing |url= |location= |publisher=Darwin Press |page=132 |isbn= 0878501274}}</ref> However, Ibn Hisham wrote in the preface to his biography of Muhammad that he omitted matters from Ibn Ishaq's biography that "would distress certain people".<ref>{{cite book |last=Holland |first=Tom |title=In the Shadow of the Sword |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5u3Ukw7AftwC&pg=PT28 |date=2012 |publisher=Doubleday |pages=42|isbn=978-0-7481-1951-6 |quote=Things which it is disgraceful to discuss; matters which would distress certain people; and such reports as I have been told are not to be accepted as trustworthy – all these things have I omitted. [Ibn Hashim, p. 691.]}}</ref> Another early historical source is the history of Muhammad's campaigns by [[al-Waqidi]] ({{died in|207}} AH), and [[The Book of the Major Classes|the work]] of Waqidi's secretary [[Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi]] ({{died in|230}} AH).{{sfn|Watt|1953|p=xi}}

Many scholars accept these early biographies as authentic, though their accuracy is unascertainable.{{sfn|Nigosian|2004|p=6}} Recent studies have led scholars to distinguish between traditions touching legal matters and purely historical events. In the legal group, traditions could have been subject to invention while historic events, aside from exceptional cases, may have been subject only to "tendential shaping".{{sfn|Watt|1953|p=xv}}

===Hadith===
{{Main|Hadith}}
[[File:PERF No. 732.jpg|thumb|left|An early manuscript of the [[Muwatta Imam Malik|''Muwatta'']] of [[Malik ibn Anas]], dated within his lifetime in {{circa|780}}]]
Other important sources include the [[hadith]] collections, accounts of verbal and physical teachings and traditions attributed to Muhammad. Hadiths were compiled several generations after his death by Muslims including [[Muhammad al-Bukhari]], [[Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj]], [[Muhammad ibn Isa at-Tirmidhi]], [[Al-Nasa'i|Abd ar-Rahman al-Nasai]], [[Abu Dawood]], [[Ibn Majah]], [[Malik ibn Anas]], [[al-Daraqutni]].<ref name="Lewis 1993, pp. 33–34">{{cite book |last=Lewis |first= Bernard|author-link=Bernard Lewis |date=1993 |title= [[Islam and the West]]|url= |location= |publisher= [[Oxford University Press]]|pages=33–34 |isbn= 978-0195090611}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=A.C. Brown |last1=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan A.C. Brown |date=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nyMKDEAb4GsC&pg=PA9 |title=The Canonization of al-Bukhārī and Muslim: The Formation and Function of the Sunnī Ḥadīth Canon |page=9 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |isbn=978-90-04-15839-9 |quote=We can discern three strata of the Sunni ḥadīth canon. The perennial core has been the ''Ṣaḥīḥayn''. Beyond these two foundational classics, some fourth-/tenth-century scholars refer to a four-book selection that adds the two ''Sunans'' of Abū Dāwūd (d. 275/889) and al-Nāsaʾī (d. 303/915). The Five Book canon, which is first noted in the sixth/twelfth century, incorporates the ''Jāmiʿ'' of al-Tirmidhī (d. 279/892). Finally, the Six Book canon, which hails from the same period, adds either the ''Sunan'' of Ibn Mājah (d. 273/887), the ''Sunan'' of al-Dāraquṭnī (d. 385/995) or the ''Muwaṭṭaʾ'' of Mālik b. Anas (d. 179/796). Later ḥadīth compendia often included other collections as well. None of these books, however, has enjoyed the esteem of al-Bukhārīʼs and Muslimʼs works. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018150501/https://books.google.com/books?id=nyMKDEAb4GsC |archive-date=18 October 2017 }}</ref>

Some Western academics cautiously view the hadith collections as accurate historical sources.<ref name="Lewis 1993, pp. 33–34" /> Scholars such as [[Wilferd Madelung]] do not reject the narrations which have been compiled in later periods, but judge them in the context of history and on the basis of their compatibility with the events and figures.{{sfn|Madelung|1997|pp=xi, 19–20}} Muslim scholars, in contrast, typically place a greater emphasis on the hadith literature instead of the biographical literature, since hadiths maintain a traditional chain of transmission ([[isnad]]); the lack of such a chain for the biographical literature makes it unverifiable in their eyes.{{sfn|Ardic|2012|p=99}}
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