Ibn Ishaq

Ibn Ishaq (704-768 CE) was the author of the earliest comprehensive biography of the Prophet Muhammad, a work that became the foundation for all subsequent seerah literature. Born in Medina as the grandson of a Christian captive from Iraq who had been freed and converted to Islam, Ibn Ishaq grew up in the city of the Prophet and studied under numerous Tabiin scholars, including az-Zuhri, Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatadah, and others who had direct access to the companions' accounts.

Ibn Ishaq compiled his monumental work, known as Sirat Rasul Allah (The Life of the Messenger of Allah), in three parts: al-Mubtada (the beginning, covering pre-Islamic history and earlier prophets), al-Mabath (the Prophet's mission in Mecca), and al-Maghazi (the military campaigns and Medinan period). The original work was enormous in scope and included poetry, genealogy, and detailed accounts of events. Though the original text has not survived in its entirety, it was preserved and edited by Ibn Hisham (d. 833 CE), whose recension is the primary version studied today.

Ibn Ishaq spent time in Alexandria, Kufa, and Baghdad, where he enjoyed the patronage of the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur. While some hadith scholars, notably Imam Malik, criticized certain aspects of his methodology, his contributions to Islamic historiography are unparalleled. Without his work, much of the detailed narrative of the Prophet's life would have been lost. He died in Baghdad in 151 AH (768 CE).