The life of Muhammad

Sirat Rasul Allah (Life of the Messenger of God) or al-Sirat al-Nabawiyah (Prophetic biography) is the Arabic term used for the various traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad, from which most historical information about his life and the early period of Islam is derived. Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah is the earliest surviving traditional biography, and was written just over 100 years after Muhammad's death. It survives in the later editions of Ibn Hisham and al-Tabari. Professor Guillaume's translation of the Sira of Ibn Iss-Haq is now reissued. The translator used Ibn Hisham's abridgement and also included many additions and variants found in the writings of early authors. The book thus presents in English practically all that is known of the life of the Prophet. In the introduction, the translator discusses the character of the Sira in the light of the opinion of early Arabian scholars, noting especially the difficulties of the poetry. As the earliest monument of Arabian prose literature, the Sira remains a work of the first importance.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction, Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.