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Muhammad and the Medinan Jews: A Comparison of the Texts of Ibn Ishaq's Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh with al-Waqidi's Kitāb al-maghāzī

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2009

Rizwi S. Faizer
Rizwi S. Faizer
Affiliation:
independent scholar living in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.
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Extract

This article is based on the assumption that Ibn Ishaq (704–67) and al-Waqidi (747–823) were responsible for my main sources, the compilations entitled Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh and Kitāb al-maghāzī, respectively. Such an assumption is justifiable. To take Ibn Ishaq's Biography in the recension of Ibn Hisham (d. 834), we know that the Ziyad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Bakkaʾi (d. 798) text used by Ibn Hisham was authorized by Ibn Ishaq himself, and indeed had been confirmed by the use of both samʾ and ʾarḍ techniques as a correct version. At the same time, Ismail K. Poonawala confirms that the redaction of Salama ibn al-Fadl (d. 807) compares closely with the text of Ibn Hisham, indicating that the text of Ibn Ishaq had probably been fixed: Salama's redaction was based on a papyrus manuscript of Ibn Ishaq transmitted by Muhammad ibn Humayd ibn Hayyan al-Razi, and was used by al-Tabari in his narration of the Prophet's life, which forms a part of his compilation Taʾrīkh al-rusul waʾl-mulūk. As for the text of al-Waqidi, evidence indicates that it had been established by al-Waqidi himself from beginning to end, for he not only prefaces his work with the names of his chief transmitters of tradition but also provides the basic chronology of all the events that are discussed in his work.

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International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , November 1996 , pp. 463 - 489
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

NOTES

Author's note: This article is based on my Ph.D. dissertation, “Ibn Isḥāq and al-Wāqidī Revisited: A Case Study of Muhammad and the Jews in Biographical Literature” (Montreal: McGill University, 1995). I thank the editor of IJMES, Professor R. S. Humphreys, for the valuable suggestions and comments which have helped make this article a more lucid one.

1 Muḥammad ibn Isḥaq, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, in the recension of Hishām, ʾAbd al-Malik ibn, ed. Wüstenfeld, Ferdinand, under the title Das Leben Muhammed's nach Ibn Ishāk, 2 vols. in 3 (Göttingen: Dieterichsche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, 1858–1860)Google Scholar; Isḥāq, Muḥammad ibn, The Life of Muhammad, ed., trans., and with an introduction by Guillaume, Alfred (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1955).Google Scholar

2 al-Wāqidī, Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar, Kitāb al-maghāzī, edited with an English preface and Arabic introduction by Jones, J. M. B., 3 vols. (London: Oxford University Press, 1966)Google Scholar.

3. In this article, I refer to this work as either Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh or Sīra by Ibn Isḥāq.

4 Nabia Abbott explains the nature of learning in the early years of Islam, dividing the students who attended the “recitals” of shaykhs/lecturers into three groups: (a) those who attended for the purpose of listening only (such a session was termed a samʿ); (b) those who had previously read and copied the text of the shaykh's lecture and brought their manuscripts to him to be checked, a process known as the ʿarḍ; and (c) those who combined the samʾ and the ʾarḍ. The correction could be done in any of three ways: by correcting the manuscript from a second reading of the shaykh, either by memory or the use of his own notes, by reading the text back to the shaykh so that he might correct it, or by comparing the text with another authenticated text established by the shaykh himself. See Abbott, Nabia, Historical Texts, vol. 1, Studies in Arabic Literary Papyri (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), 93Google Scholar.

5 The Kufan, al-Bakkaʾi, is recognized as the most reliable transmitter of Ibn Isḥäq because his text is supposed to have been dictated to him twice by the author. See Khoury, R. G., “Sources islamiques de la ‘Sīra,’” in La Vie du Prophète Mahomet: Colloque de Strasbourg, 10 1980 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1983), 10Google Scholar.

6 See the translator's foreword to Al-Ṭabari, , The Last Years of the Prophet, vol. 9, The History of al Tabarī, trans, and ed. Poonawala, Ismail K. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), xiGoogle Scholar.

7 See Schöler, Gregor, “Die Frage der schriftlichen oder mündlichen Überlieferung der Wissenschaften im frühen Islam,” Der Islam 42 (1985): 201–30,Google Scholar who makes the case for the early existence of fixed texts, as against Sadun Mahmud al-Samuk, who believes that these early authors did not establish a fixed text; see al-Samuk, Sadun Mahmud, Die historischen Überlieferungen nach Ibn Isḥāq (diss., Frankfurt, 1978)Google Scholar.

8 Abbott, , Historical Texts, 94Google Scholar.

9 Al-Ṭabari, , Taʾrīkh al-rusul waʾl-mulūk, ed. De Goeje, M. J. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1879), 1:1073–1837Google Scholar

10 Throughout this article the terms tradition, transmitter, and tradent have been used in the Islamic sense. I have not used the Arabic terminology, because the terms akhbār and ḥadīth are subtly different. Distinguishing one from the other is difficult and, as far as this article is concerned, unnecessary.

11 In fact, the Kitāb al-maghāzī of al-Wāqidī has come down to us through the four Iraqis Ibn al-Thalji, Ibn Abi Hayya (d. 931), Ibn Hayawayhi (d. 992), and al-Hasan ibn ʾAli al-Jawhari (d. 1062); see Jones, English preface to al-Waqidi, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, vGoogle Scholar.

12 See Jones, J. M. B., “The Chronology of the Maghāzī—A Textual Survey,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 19 (1957): 245–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, “The Maghāzī Literature,” in Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period, ed. Beeston, A. F. L. et al. (Cambridge University Press, 1983), 344–51,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Crone, Patricia, Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987)Google Scholar, respectively.

13 Hinds, Martin, “Maghāzī and Sīra in Early Islamic Scholarship,” in La vie du Prophèt Mahomet, 62Google Scholar.

14 Caetani, Leone, Annali dell'Islam, vol. 1 (Milan: U. Hoepli, 1905)Google Scholar; Crone, , Meccan TradeGoogle Scholar; Gil, Moshe, “The Medinan Opposition to the Prophet,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 10 (1987): 65–96Google Scholar; Hirschfeld, Hartwig, “Essai sur l'histoire des Juifs de Médine,” part 1, Revue des Etudes juives 7 (1883): 167–93Google Scholar and part 2, Revue des Etudes juives 10 (1885): 10–31Google Scholar; Jones, , “Chronology of the Maghāzī”Google Scholar; Kister, M. J., “The Expedition of Biʿr Maʾuna,” in Arabic and Islamic Studies in Honour of Hamilton A. R. Gibb, ed. Makdisi, George (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1965), 337–57Google Scholar; Lecker, M., “Muḥammad at Medina: A Geographical Approach,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 6 (1985): 29–62Google Scholar; Serjeant, R. B., “Ḥaram and Ḥawṭah, the Sacred Enclave in Arabia,” in Mélanges Ṭaha Ḥusain, ed. Badawi, A. R. (Cairo: Al-Maaref, 1962), 41Google Scholar; Watt, William Montgomery, Muhammad at Mecca (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953)Google Scholar; idem, Muhammad at Medina (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956)Google Scholar; idem, “Muhammad,” in Holt, P. M. and Lewis, Bernard, Cambridge History of Islam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 30–56Google Scholar; Wensinck, Arent Jan, Mohammed en de Joden te Medina (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1928)Google Scholar, trans. Behn, Wolfgang under the title Muhammad and the Jews of Medina (Freiburg im Breisgau: K. Schwarz, 1975)Google Scholar.

15 Wellhausen, Julius, preface to Al-Wāqidī, Muhammad in Medina, trans. Wellhausen, Julius (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1882), 12Google Scholar.

16 Jones, J. M. B., “Ibn Isḥāq and al-Wāqidī,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 22 (1959): 41–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Crone, , Meccan Trade, 225Google Scholar.

18 See, for instance, Hawting's, G. R. analysis of the traditions of the fatḥ in “Al-ḥudaybiyya and the Conquest of Mecca,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 8 (1986): 18Google Scholar, in which he discusses the use of hadith. As for the use of akhbār, see Leder, Stefan, “Authorship and Transmissions in Unauthored Literature,” Oriens (1988): 67CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 This is essentially the position toward literary analysis taken by Ferdinand de Saussure; see Culler, Jonathan, Ferdinand de Saussure (New York: Cornell University Press, 1986)Google Scholar.

20 Caetani, , Annali, 1:391–95Google Scholar; Gil, , “The Constitution of Medina,” Israel Oriental Studies 4 (1974): 44–66, 203–24Google Scholar; Rubin, Uri, “The ‘Constitution of Medina’: Some Notes,” Studia Islamica 42 (1985): 5–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Serjeant, R. B., “The Sunnah Jāmiʿah, Pacts with the Yathrib Jews, and the Taḥrīm of Yathrib: Analysis and Translation of the documents Comprised in the so called ‘Constitution of Medina’,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 41 (1978): 1–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, “The Constitution of Medina,” Islamic Quarterly 8 (1964): 3–16Google Scholar; Watt, W. Montgomery, “Condemnation of the Jews of Banū Qurayẓah,” in Early Islam: Collected Articles (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990), 1–12Google Scholar; Wellhausen, Julius, “Muhammads Gemeindeordnung von Medina,” in Skizzen und Vorarbeiten (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1889), 4:65–83Google Scholar; Wensinck, , Muhammad and the Jews of MedinaGoogle Scholar.

21 Arafat, W. N., “New Light on the Story of Banū Qurayẓa and the Jews of Medina,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1976): 100–107Google Scholar; and Ahmad, Barakat, Muhammad and the Jews (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1979)Google Scholar.

22 Kister, M. J., “The Massacre of the Banū Qurayẓa: A Reconsideration of a Tradition,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 8 (1986): 68Google Scholar.

23 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 3–7Google Scholar.

24 Ibid., 552.

25 Ibid., 672.

26 Sellheim, Rudolf, “Prophet, Chalif und Geschichte. Die Muḥammed-Biographie des Ibn Isḥāq,” Oriens 18–19 (1967): 3–91Google Scholar.

27 The Prophet's death is mentioned incidentally in the course of the chapter on the raid on Khaybar, and Usama's raid on Muʾta, for instance, but these are only references to the event. See al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 678, 1, 120Google Scholar. On the other hand, there are other traditions regarding the Prophet's death narrated by al-Wāqidī which are recorded for us by Ibn Saʾd, but as we are concerned with the Kitāb al-maghāzī, which is essentially a literary genre, these traditions will be considered to have been intentionally excluded by al-Wāqidī and therefore considered irrelevant for the purposes of this study.

28 See al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 571–633, 741–54, 873–74, 1088–1103Google Scholar.

29 Thus for instance the ghazwat muraysīʿ is but a mnemonic for the recollection of the traditions regarding the scandal about ʿAʾisha. See al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 426–40Google Scholar.

30 According to Horovitz, Ibn Isḥāq cited more than one hundred traditionists from Medina alone. See Horovitz, Josef, “The Earliest Biographies of the Prophet and their Authors,” trans. Pikthall, Marmaduke, in Islamic Culture 1 (1928): pt. 3, 170Google Scholar.

31 Born into notoriety, his father having been one of the Meccans who had sworn to kill Muhammad, Ibn Shihab built up a reputation for his scrupulous scholarship and honesty, and for his collection of traditions of the Prophet. See Horovitz, , “The Earliest Biographies of the Prophet,” pt. 2, 33–50Google Scholar; and Sezgin, Fuat, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums (GAS) (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1967), 1:280–83Google Scholar.

32 Son of ʿAsmaʾ, daughter of Abu Bakr, and sister of ʿAʾisha, the wife of the Prophet, and al-Zubayr, son of Al-ʿAwwam, brother of Khadija, the first wife of the Prophet. See Horovitz, , “The Earliest Biographies of the Prophet,” pt. 1, 542Google Scholar; and Sezgin, , GAS, 1:278Google Scholar.

33 Tradition has it that ʿAbd Allah's great-grandfather was sent by the Prophet as judge to the Yemen, and asked to instruct the inhabitants in the teachings of Islam. His grandfather is said to have been killed at the battle of the ḥarrm in A.H. 63, and his father was appointed judge in Medina in A.H. 86, when ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd Al-ʿAziz took over its governorship. It was he whom ʿUmar II is supposed to have sought out to obtain the hadith of the Prophet and write them down. See Horovitz, , “The Earliest Biographies of the Prophet,” pt. 2, 22–33Google Scholar; Sezgin, , GAS, 1:284Google Scholar.

34 His grandfather was the famous Qatada whose eyeball was replaced in its socket by the Prophet, and who is reported to have declared that he could see better with that eye than with the one that had not been wounded. See Sachau, Eduard, “Studien zur ältesten Geschichtsüberlieferung der Araber,” Mitteilungen des Seminars für orientalische Sprachen 7 (1904): 168Google Scholar.

35 Khoury, , “Sources islamiques,” 12–13Google Scholar; Sezgin, , GAS, 1:279–80Google Scholar.

36 Khoury, , “Sources islamiques,” 13Google Scholar.

37 Horovitz, , “The Earliest Biographies of the Prophet,” pt. 4, 518Google Scholar. According to Horovitz, al-Wāqidī must have been about twenty-five years old or younger when he began to collect traditions, for some of his authorities died only a little after A.H. 150.

38 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 351–52Google Scholar.

39 Ibid., 355–61.

40 For the names of those who witnessed Badr, see al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 152Google Scholar.

41 As for instance those who were martyred at the battle of al-Khandaq, ibid., 495–96; those who were killed during the raid on the B. Qurayza, ibid., 529; and those who were martyred at Khaybar, ibid., 699–700.

42 Those who were taken prisoner at Badr, ibid., 138–44.

43 Portions allotted from what was taken from the B. Nadir, ibid., 379–80.

44 That these communities were not included in the “Constitution” is indicated by the fact that when listing the various Jews who opposed the Prophet, he not only mentions the Jewish confederates of the Arab groups mentioned in the agreement, but also includes the B. Qaynuqac, the B. Nadir, and the B. Qurayza. See Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 351–52Google Scholar; see also Watt, , Muḥammad at Medina, 22Google Scholar; and Rubin, , “The Constitution of Medina,” 10Google Scholar.

45 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 341–44Google Scholar.

46 Ibid., 304–5.

47 Ibid., 393–94.

48 Ibid., 395–96.

49 Ibid., 388.

50 Ibid., 427.

51 Ibid., 545.

52 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 454Google Scholar.

53 “The Prophet wrote a document concerning the emigrants and helpers in which he made a friendly agreement with the Jews….” See Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 341Google Scholar; Isḥāq, Ibn, The Life of Muhammad, 231Google Scholar.

54 According to al-Waqidi, Ibn Isḥāq was “a chronicler, genealogist, and traditionist,…a man to be trusted.” See al-Ṭabari, , Taʾrīkh, 3:2512,Google ScholarIshaq, Ibn, The Life of Muhammad, xxxiiGoogle Scholar.

55 See Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 714Google Scholar.

56 See idem, Life of Muhammad, 482Google Scholar.

57 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 379Google Scholar.

58 See ibid., 184.

59 Ibid., 176.

60 Ibid., 192.

61 Ibid., 370–71.

62 Ibid., 445.

63 Ibid., 503–4.

64 Wellhausen, , “Muhammad's Constitution of Medina,” in Muhammad and the Jews of Medina, 128–29Google Scholar.

65 The archaic nature of the language of the information that has been differentiated as the “Constitution of Medina” is not sufficient to establish its historical nature. Such language could very well have been affected to generate the impression of age, and it is interesting that Watt himself should admit this possibility. See Watt, , “Condemnation of the Jews of Banū Qurayẓah,” in Early Islam, 6Google Scholar. It is known that students of law were attempting to simulate documents pertaining to the meaning of the term dhimmī and its legal implications. The document which claims to go back to the time of ʿUmar, the second caliph of Islam, is a notorious example. See Tritton, A. S., The Caliphs and Their Non-Muslim Subjects: A Critical Study of the Covenant of ʿUmar (London: Oxford University Press, 1930), 12Google Scholar.

66 Campbell, Joseph, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973), 30Google Scholar.

67 Sellheim, , “Prophet, Chalif und Geschichte,” 69Google Scholar.

68 Hirschfeld, , “Essai sur l'histoire,” pt. 2, 174Google Scholar.

69 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 24Google Scholar.

70 From what we know of earlier sīra-maghāzī, such as those of Maʿmar ibn Rāshid and Musa ibn ʿUqba, it was the raid on the B. Nadir that took place six months after Badr—the raid on the B. Qaynuqaʿ not being mentioned. See Kister, , “Notes on the Papyrus Text about Muhammad's Campaign against the Banū al-Naḍīr,” Archiv Orientalni 32 (1964), 235Google Scholar; and Jones, , “The Chronology of the Maghāzī,” 249, 268Google Scholar. This episode increases the number of significant Jewish tribes attacked by Muhammad from two to three. Given that three is a well-recognized numerical mnemonic, and that Ibn Isḥāq was famous for his oral performances of this collection of traditions about the Prophet's life, the possibility that the inclusion of the raid accompanied by the escalation of violence was established for mnemonic reasons must be considered. For the uses of the mnemonic in oral tradition, see Bultmann, Rudolf, who writes of the law of repetition in The History of the Synoptic Tradition (New York: Harper and Row, 1963), 191, 314Google Scholar; and Vansina, Jan, Oral Tradition as History (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985)Google Scholar, for an appreciation of how oral tradition works. It is important to remember that historical fact is not necessarily behind these incidents. According to S. D. Goitein there is only Arabic literary evidence to support such an opinion; see The Islam of Muhammad, cited in Kiener's, Ronald C. review article on Newby, Gordon D., Religious Studies Review (07 1992): 183Google Scholar.

71 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 545–47Google Scholar. I would remind the reader that while al-Wāqidī's Prophetalso demands conversion of the Jews, he does this only after defeating them in war, and it is an offer made as a last resort.

72 See al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 176–77Google Scholar. A similar story is narrated by Ibn Hisham in his recension of Ibn Ishaq's Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, but he takes the precaution to add that the woman referred to refused to uncover her face, an implausible situation as the Prophet had not yet prescribed the veil for his women. This leads one to suppose, therefore, that the tradition cited was false. See Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 546Google Scholar.

73 See Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 545Google Scholar.

74 Ibid., 543–44.

75 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 176Google Scholar.

76 Thus, for instance, the isnāds used by Ibn Isḥāq are (a) a report about the B. Qaynuqaʿ (b) a freeman from the family of Zayd ibn Thabit from Saʿid ibn Jubayr from ʿIkrima from Ibn ʿAbbas, (c) ʿAsim ibn ʿUmar ibn Qatada; and (d) Ishaq ibn Yasar from ʿUbada ibn al-Walid ibn ʿUbada ibn al-Samit. The isnāds used by al-Wāqidī are (a) ʿAbd Allah ibn Jaʿfar from al-Harith ibn Fudayl from Ibn Kaʿb Al-Qurazī, (b) Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah from Zuhri from ʿUrwa, (c–d) two traditions that begin “they said,” probably referring to the collective tradition given at the beginning of the book, (e) Muhammad ibn Maslama “said,” (f) “Muhammad related to me from al-Zuhri, from ʿUrwa,” (g) “Muhammad ibn al-Qasim related to me from his father from al-Rabiʿ ibn Sabra from his father,” and (h) “Yahya ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Abi Qatada related to me from ʿAbd Allah ibn Abi Bakr ibn Hazm.” See Isḥāq, Ibn, Life of Muhammad, 363–64,Google Scholar and al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 176–80, respectivelyGoogle Scholar.

77 Jones, , “The Maghāzī Literature,” 348Google Scholar.

78 See Qurʾan, , 3:10,Google Scholar cited in Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 545Google Scholar.

79 Qurʾan, , trans. Ali, Yusuf, 8:58,Google Scholar cited in Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 177Google Scholar.

80 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 543–44Google Scholar.

81 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 181Google Scholar.

82 Ibid., 185.

83 See Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 548–53Google Scholar.

84 Ibid., 657–58.

85 Ibid., 552–54.

86 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 192Google Scholar.

87 Ibid.

88 Serjeant, , “The Sunnah Jāmiʿah,” 32Google Scholar.

89 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 192Google Scholar.

90 Lings, Martin, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1983), 171Google Scholar.

91 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 191Google Scholar; Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 553Google Scholar.

92 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 288Google Scholar.

93 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 680Google Scholar.

94 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 462Google Scholar.

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96 Ishaq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 652–55Google Scholar; Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 363–74Google Scholar.

97 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 365Google Scholar.

98 Ibid., 209–13.

99 Ibid., 444–45.

100 Ibid., 379.

101 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Alāah, 653Google Scholar.

102 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 380Google Scholar.

103 Ibid., 375.

104 Stillman, Norman A., The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979), 14Google Scholar.

105 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 373Google Scholar.

106 Ibid., 374.

107 Ibid., 426–40.

108 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 731–40Google Scholar.

109 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 671Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 452Google Scholar.

110 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 672Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 476Google Scholar.

111 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 677–78Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 470Google Scholar.

112 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 676Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 477Google Scholar.

113 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 680Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 480–84Google Scholar.

114 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 677Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 445Google Scholar.

115 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 678–79Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 469Google Scholar.

116 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 683Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 489Google Scholar.

117 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 442Google Scholar.

118 Ibid., 445.

119 Ibid., 458.

120 Ibid., 460. Interestingly, this same tradition is repeated in the chapter on the raid on al-Hudaybiya, but there it is recorded as a vision or dream rather than a mere hope. See Ibid., 572.

121 Ibid., 455.

122 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīral rasūl Allāh, 396, 399Google Scholar.

123 See al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 503–4Google Scholar; for my translation see page 468.

124 Kister, , “The Massacre of the Banū Qurayẓa,” 94–95Google Scholar.

125 Ibid., 96.

126 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 680Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 462Google Scholar.

127 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 458Google Scholar.

128 Kister, , “The Massacre of the Banū Qurayẓa,” 85Google Scholar.

129 Ibid., 178.

130 Ibid., 288, 462.

131 Ibid., 96.

132 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 497Google Scholar. This knack of presenting the reader with a kind of premonition of what is soon to happen is a characteristic of al-Wāqidī's style, which I have commented on.

133 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 684Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 497Google Scholar.

134 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 684Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb Al-maghāzī, 499Google Scholar.

135 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 687–88Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 504Google Scholar.

136 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 692Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 515Google Scholar.

137 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 688Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 510Google Scholar.

138 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 684Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb Al-maghāzī, 497Google Scholar.

139 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 685Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 498–99Google Scholar.

140 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 685–86Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 501–3Google Scholar.

141 al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 366Google Scholar.

142 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 690–91Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 516–17Google Scholar.

143 We know that it happened before Uḥud because the man who bought the fruit from Abu Lubaba was martyred at Uhud. See al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 505Google Scholar.

144 Ibid.

145 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 686–87Google Scholar; Sellheim, , “Prophet, Chalif und Geschichte,” 62Google Scholar.

146 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 679Google Scholar.

147 al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb Al-maghāzī, 512Google Scholar. Compare Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 679Google Scholar.

148 Watt, , “Condemnation of the Jews of Banū Qurayẓah,” 11Google Scholar.

149 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 415Google Scholar; Ishaq, Ibn, Life of Muhammad, 281Google Scholar.

150 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 381, 427Google Scholar.

151 See my discussion of the murder of Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf on page 479–80.

152 al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 1–8Google Scholar.

153 Jones, , “The Chronology of the Maghāzī” 261Google Scholar.

154 See Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 548–53Google Scholar; al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 184–93Google Scholar.

155 al-Razzāq, ʿAbd, al-Muṣannaf, ed. al-Aʿẓamī, Ḥabīb al-Raḥmān (Beirut: 1970), 5:357Google Scholar, cited in Rubin, , “The Assassination of Kaʿb b. al-Ashraf,” Oriens 32 (1990): 69, n. 27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

156 See Kister, , “Notes on the Papyrus Text,” 235Google Scholar.

157 See al-Zurqānī, , Sharḥ ʿalā'l mawāhib al-ladunīya, 1:551Google Scholar, cited in Jones, , “Chronology of the Maghāzī” 247Google Scholar, n. 21.

158 Exegetes such as Muqatil ibn Sulayman (d. 767) and Baghawi (d. 1122) are seen to associate the murder of Kaʿb with the exile of the B. Nadir and sūrat al-Ḥashr. See Rubin, , “The Assassination of Kaʿb b. al-Ashraf,” 68Google Scholar.

159 Ibid., 68, n. 23.

160 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 192Google Scholar.

161 Ibid., 391.

162 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 714–16Google Scholar.

163 Ibid., 714.

164 Jones, however, feels that the differences regarding the date of the murder of Abu Rafiʿ was a matter of simple confusion. See Jones, , “Chronology of the Maghāzī” 270Google Scholar.

165 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 395Google Scholar.

166 Qurʾan, , trans. Ali, Yusuf, 5:12Google Scholar.

167 Isḥāq, Ibn, Kitāb sīrat rasūl Allāh, 392Google Scholar.

168 Ibid., 663.

169 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī 196Google Scholar.

170 According to Northrop Frye, “Symmetry in any narrative always means that historical content is being subordinated to mythical demands of design and form.” See Frye, Northrop, The Great Code (Toronto: Academic Press Canada, 1982), 43Google Scholar.

171 Al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, 288, 462Google Scholar.

172 According to J. N. Mattock, the compiler is essentially sticking to the key components of the story, but inevitably changes the details to suit the immediate circumstances that he faces. See Mattock, J. N., “History and Fiction,” Occasional Papers of the School of ʿAbbasid Studies 1 (1986): 96Google Scholar.

173 According to Johann Fück there were at least fifteen known recensions of Ibn Isḥāq available soon after his death. See Fück, Johann, “Muḥammad Ibn Isḥāq: Literarhistorische Untersuchungen” (diss., Frankfurt am Main: 1925), 44Google Scholar.