Abu `Abdullah Muhammad Ibn ‘Omar Ibn Waqid al-Aslami (
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
) (c. 130 – 207
AH; c. 747 – 823
AD) was a historian commonly referred to as al-Waqidi (Arabic: ). His surname is derived from his grandfather's name Waqid and thus he became famous as al-Imam al-Waqidi.
[Islamic Conquest of Syria A Translation of Futuhusham by al-Imam al-Waqidi]
, pgs. x-xi. Trans. Mawlana Sulayman al-Kindi. Al-Waqidi was an early
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
and
biographer
Biographers are authors who write an account of another person's life, while autobiographers are authors who write their own biography.
Biographers
Countries of working life: Ab=Arabia, AG=Ancient Greece, Al=Australia, Am=Armenian, AR=Ancient Rome ...
of the Islamic prophet
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...
, specializing in his military campaigns. He served as a judge (''qadi'') for the Abbasid caliph
al-Ma'mun
Abu al-Abbas Abdallah ibn Harun al-Rashid ( ar, أبو العباس عبد الله بن هارون الرشيد, Abū al-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hārūn ar-Rashīd; 14 September 786 – 9 August 833), better known by his regnal name Al-Ma'm ...
. Several of al-Waqidi's works are known through his scribe and student (in the field of the ''
al-maghazi
Al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya (), commonly shortened to Sīrah and translated as prophetic biography, are the traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad from which, in addition to the Quran and Hadiths, most historical information about his life and the ...
'' genre),
Ibn Sa'd
Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Sa‘d ibn Manī‘ al-Baṣrī al-Hāshimī or simply Ibn Sa'd ( ar, ابن سعد) and nicknamed ''Scribe of Waqidi'' (''Katib al-Waqidi''), was a scholar and Arabian biographer. Ibn Sa'd was born in 784/785 ...
.
Biography
Al-Waqidi was born in Medina around 748
AD (130
AH). He was the
mawla
Mawlā ( ar, مَوْلَى, plural ''mawālī'' ()), is a polysemous Arabic word, whose meaning varied in different periods and contexts.A.J. Wensinck, Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed, Brill. "Mawlā", vol. 6, p. 874.
Before the Islamic prophet ...
(client) of ‘Abd Allah ibn Burayda of the Banu Aslam of Medina. According to Abu Faraj al-Isfahani, al-Waqidi’s mother was the daughter of ‘Isa ibn Ja‘far ibn Sa’ib Khathir, a
Persian, and the great-granddaughter of
Sa’ib, who introduced music to Medina.
Amongst his prominent teachers were Ibn Abi Thahab Ma'mar bin Rashid,
Malik ibn Anas
Malik ibn Anas ( ar, مَالِك بن أَنَس, 711–795 CE / 93–179 AH), whose full name is Mālik bin Anas bin Mālik bin Abī ʿĀmir bin ʿAmr bin Al-Ḥārith bin Ghaymān bin Khuthayn bin ʿAmr bin Al-Ḥārith al-Aṣbaḥī ...
and
Sufyan al-Thawri
Sufyan al-Thawri ( ar, أبو عبد الله سفيان بن سعيد بن مسروق الثوري, ʼAbu ʿAbd Allāh Sufyān ibn Saʻīd ibn Masrūq al-Thawrī ; 716–778) was a ''Tābi‘ al-Tābi‘īn'' Islamic scholar, jurist, and founde ...
.
[ He lived in Medina at the time of ]Abu Hanifa
Nuʿmān ibn Thābit ibn Zūṭā ibn Marzubān ( ar, نعمان بن ثابت بن زوطا بن مرزبان; –767), commonly known by his '' kunya'' Abū Ḥanīfa ( ar, أبو حنيفة), or reverently as Imam Abū Ḥanīfa by Sunni Musl ...
and Ja'far al-Sadiq
Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ṣādiq ( ar, جعفر بن محمد الصادق; 702 – 765 CE), commonly known as Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (), was an 8th-century Shia Muslim scholar, jurist, and theologian.. He was the founder of th ...
and studied in Al-Masjid an-Nabawi
Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (), known in English as the Prophet's Mosque, is a mosque built by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the city of Medina in the Al Madinah Province of Saudi Arabia. It was the second mosque built by Muhammad in Medina, afte ...
as a student of Malik ibn Anas. Al-Waqidi also had access to the grandchildren of Muhammad's companions. Al-Waqidi originally earned a living as a wheat trader, but when a calamity struck at the age of 50, he migrated to Iraq during the reign of Harun ar-Rashid
Abu Ja'far Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ( ar
, أبو جعفر هارون ابن محمد المهدي) or Harun ibn al-Mahdi (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Harun al-Rashid ( ar, هَارُون الرَشِيد, translit=Hārūn ...
. He was appointed a judge of eastern Baghdad, and Harun ar-Rashid's heir al-Ma'mun
Abu al-Abbas Abdallah ibn Harun al-Rashid ( ar, أبو العباس عبد الله بن هارون الرشيد, Abū al-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hārūn ar-Rashīd; 14 September 786 – 9 August 833), better known by his regnal name Al-Ma'm ...
later appointed him the ''qadi
A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...
'' of a military camp at Resafa
Resafa ( ar, الرصافة Reṣafa), also sometimes spelled Rusafa, and known in the Byzantine era as Sergiopolis (in greek Σεργιούπολις, Σεργιόπολις, "city of Saint Sergius") and briefly as Anastasiopolis (Αναστασ ...
.
Al-Waqidi concentrated on history, and was acknowledged as a master of the genre by his many of his peers.[ His books on the early Islamic expeditions and conquests predate much of the Sunni and Shia literature of the later Abbasid period.][ His works regarding the battles of Muhammad and his companions were considered reliable by most early Islamic scholars.]Al-Dhahabi
Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an Islamic historia ...
, ''Siyar A'lam al-Nubala'', vol. 9, pg. 462. While still regarded as an important source for early Islamic history, later authors debated the reliability of his works. Western orientalists who enjoyed his writings include Martin Lings
Martin Lings (24 January 1909 – 12 May 2005), also known as Abū Bakr Sirāj ad-Dīn, was an English writer, Islamic scholar, and philosopher. A student of the Swiss metaphysician Frithjof Schuon and an authority on the work of William Sh ...
.
Works
Al-Waqidi is primarily known for his ''Kitab al-Tarikh wa al-Maghazi'' (Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
: كتاب التاريخ والمغازي, "Book of History and Campaigns"), which is the only part of his corpus that has been fully preserved. It describes the battles
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
fought by Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...
, as well as Muhammad's life in the city of Medina
Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the Holiest sites in Islam, second-holiest city in Islam, ...
. The work draws upon the earlier ''sira'' of Ibn Ishaq
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār ibn Khiyār (; according to some sources, ibn Khabbār, or Kūmān, or Kūtān, ar, محمد بن إسحاق بن يسار بن خيار, or simply ibn Isḥaq, , meaning "the son of Isaac"; died 767) was an 8 ...
, though it includes details not found in Ibn Ishaq's text.
A number of works chronicling the Islamic conquests
The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests ( ar, الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, ), also referred to as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the main Islamic prophet. He estab ...
have been attributed to al-Waqidi, though most of these attributions are now believed to be mistaken. ''Futuh al-Sham'' (Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
: كتاب فتوح الشام, "Book of the Conquests of Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
"), a novelization of the Islamic army's conquests of Byzantine Syria, has traditionally been ascribed to al-Waqidi. Modern scholars generally classify ''Futuh al-Sham'' as a falsely-attributed later work, dating it to around the time of the Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...
, though some scholars believe a small portion of the text may be traced back to al-Waqidi. In addition to depicting the battles of the Islamic armies, the work also details the valor of various Muslim women, including Hind bint Utbah, Khawlah bint al-Azwar
Khawla bint al-Azwar ( ar, خولة بنت الازور; died 639), was an Arab Muslim warrior in the service of the Rashidun Caliphate. She played a major role in the Muslim conquest of the Levant, and fought alongside her brother Dhiraar. Sh ...
, and Asma bint Abi Bakr
Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr ( ar, أسماء بنت أبي بكر; 594/595 – 692 CE) was one of the companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and half-sister of his third wife Aisha. She is regarded as one of the most prominent Islamic figures, as ...
.
According to Ibn al-Nadim
Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Nadīm ( ar, ابو الفرج محمد بن إسحاق النديم), also ibn Abī Ya'qūb Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Warrāq, and commonly known by the ''nasab'' (patronymic) Ibn al-Nadīm ...
, al-Waqidi authored a book detailing the death of Husayn ibn Ali
Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, أبو عبد الله الحسين بن علي بن أبي طالب; 10 January 626 – 10 October 680) was a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a son of Ali ibn Abi ...
, though this work has not survived. Other lost texts attributed to al-Waqidi include a book chronicling the last days of Muhammad's life. The works of al-Waqidi's student Ibn Sa'd
Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Sa‘d ibn Manī‘ al-Baṣrī al-Hāshimī or simply Ibn Sa'd ( ar, ابن سعد) and nicknamed ''Scribe of Waqidi'' (''Katib al-Waqidi''), was a scholar and Arabian biographer. Ibn Sa'd was born in 784/785 ...
may contain some excerpts from these texts.
Criticism
Comparison with earlier commentaries
Historian Patricia Crone gives al-Waqidi as an example of the phenomenon whereby the farther an Islamic commentary on Muhammad's life was removed in time from his life and the events in the Quran, the more information it provided.
If one storyteller should happen to mention a raid, the next storyteller would know the date of this raid, while the third would know everything that an audience might wish to hear about.
This was despite the fact later commentaries depended on the earlier sources for their content, which suggested that if later commentaries differed in length from earlier work they should be briefer as some facts about the early days were lost or forgotten. (Crone attributed the phenomenon to storytellers' embellishment.)
Commentary works of Al-Waqidi were much larger than those of the oldest prophetic biography Ibn Ishaq
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār ibn Khiyār (; according to some sources, ibn Khabbār, or Kūmān, or Kūtān, ar, محمد بن إسحاق بن يسار بن خيار, or simply ibn Isḥaq, , meaning "the son of Isaac"; died 767) was an 8 ...
(died 767) despite the fact that al-Waqidi's later works covered a shorter period of time (only Muhammad's period in Medina).
Waqidi will always give precise dates, locations, names, where Ibn Ishaq has none, accounts of what triggered the expedition, miscellaneous information to lend color to the event ... But given that this information was all unknown to Ibn Ishaq, its value is doubtful in the extreme. And if spurious information accumulated at this rate in the two generations between Ibn Ishaq
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār ibn Khiyār (; according to some sources, ibn Khabbār, or Kūmān, or Kūtān, ar, محمد بن إسحاق بن يسار بن خيار, or simply ibn Isḥaq, , meaning "the son of Isaac"; died 767) was an 8 ...
and al-Waqidi, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that even more must have accumulated in the three generations between the Prophet and Ibn Ishaq.
Historian Michael Cook gives an example of the difference in accounts of the death of Muhammad's father Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib. Ibn Ishaq
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār ibn Khiyār (; according to some sources, ibn Khabbār, or Kūmān, or Kūtān, ar, محمد بن إسحاق بن يسار بن خيار, or simply ibn Isḥaq, , meaning "the son of Isaac"; died 767) was an 8 ...
relates that some say he died while Muhammad's mother was pregnant with Muhammad was born and some while Muhammad was 28 months old; another commentator (Ma'mar ibn Rashid) says that he died in Yathrib after being sent there to lay stores of dates. About a half a century later al-Waqidi relates that
'Abdallah had gone to Gaza on business, had fallen ill on the way back, and died in Yathrib after leaving the caravan he was with to be nursed by relations there. Waqidi was further able to specify Abdallah's age at death and the exact place of his burial. ... hat the deathtook place ... while Muhammad was still in the womb,
and that while there were "other accounts of the matter" his was the best.
Critics
;Detractors
Waqidi has faced criticism regarding his scholarly reliability from many Sunni Islamic scholars, including:
* al-Shafi’i (d. 204 A.H.) said "All the books of al-Waqidi are lies. In Medina there were seven men who used to fabricate authorities, one of which was al-Waqidi."[Ibn Abi Hatim, vol.4 pt.1 p.21]
* Ahmad ibn Hanbal
Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Dhuhli ( ar, أَحْمَد بْن حَنْبَل الذهلي, translit=Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal al-Dhuhlī; November 780 – 2 August 855 CE/164–241 AH), was a Muslim jurist, theologian, ascetic, hadith traditionist, and ...
(d. 241 A.H.) said "He is a liar, makes alternations in the traditions"[ Muhammad ibn Ahmad Al-Dhahabi,''Mizan al-I`tidal fi Naqd al-Rijal'', vol. 3 page 110]
* al-Baladhuri
ʾAḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Balādhurī ( ar, أحمد بن يحيى بن جابر البلاذري) was a 9th-century Muslim historian. One of the eminent Middle Eastern historians of his age, he spent most of his life in Baghdad and e ...
(d. 278 A.H.) said "al-Waqidi is ''matruk'' (known as a liar).
* Al-Nasa’i (d. 303 A.H.) said "The liars known for fabricating the hadith of the Messenger of Allah are four. They are: Arba’ah b. Abi Yahya in Medina, al-Waqidi in Baghdad, Muqatil b. Sulayman in Khurasan and Muhammad bin Sa’id in Syria."[ Ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalani, ''Tahdhib al-Tahdhib'', volume 9 page 366 No.604, yderabad, 1326 A.H.cf. Yusuf ‘Abbas Hashmi, Zaynab bint Jahash, ‘Islamic Culture’ vol.XLI, No.1, Hyderabad (India), 1967/ref>
* Al-Bukhari (d. 256 A.H.) said "al-Waqidi has been abandoned in hadith. He fabricates hadith"]
* Al-Dhahabi
Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an Islamic historia ...
(d. 748 A.H.) said "Consensus has taken place on the weakness of al-Waqidi"
* Yahya ibn Ma'in (d. 233 A.H.) said "He is weak. He is nothing. Not reliable!"
* Ishaq ibn Rahwayh (d. 238 A.H.) said "According to my view, he is one of those who fabricate Hadith"
* Abu Dawood
Abū Dāwūd (Dā’ūd) Sulaymān ibn al-Ash‘ath ibn Isḥāq al-Azdī al-Sijistānī ( ar, أبو داود سليمان بن الأشعث الأزدي السجستاني), commonly known simply as Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī, was a scholar o ...
(d. 275 A.H.) said "I do not write his hadith and I do not report (hadith) on his authority. I have no doubt that he used to make up hadith"
* Abu Hatim Muhammad ibn Idris al-Razi (d. 277 A.H.) said "He fabricates hadith. We have abandoned his hadith"
* Al-Daraqutni
Abu Hasan Ali ibn Umar ibn Ahmad ibn Mahdi al-Daraqutni (, 918 CE — 995 CE) was a 10th-century ''muhaddith'' best known for compiling the hadith collection '' Sunan al-Daraqutni''. He was celebrated later by Sunni hadith scholars such as the ...
(d. 385 A.H.) said "There is weakness in him (in his reporting)"
* Ali ibn al-Madini (d. 241 A.H.)said "He fabricates Hadith"
* Ibn ‘Adi (d. 365 A.H.) said "His traditions are not safe and there is danger from him (in accepting his traditions)"
* Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī or ''Ibn Ḥajar'' ( ar, ابن حجر العسقلاني, full name: ''Shihābud-Dīn Abul-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Nūrud-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī al-Kināni'') (18 February 1372 – 2 Febru ...
(d. 852 A.H.)said "He has been abandoned in spite of vastness of his knowledge"[ Ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalani, ''Tahdhib al-Tahdhib'', volume 2 page 194, airo, 1960/ref>
* Abu Zur’a al-Razi (d. 264 A.H.) said "(Waqidi's writing) Abandoned, Weak"]
* Al-Nawawi
Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī ( ar, أبو زكريا يحيى بن شرف النووي; (631A.H-676A.H) (October 1230–21 December 1277), popularly known as al-Nawawī or Imam Nawawī, was a Sunni Shafi'ite jurist and ...
(d. 676 A.H.): said "Their (muhaddithin scholars) consensus is that al-Waqidi is weak"
* Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani
Muhammad b. al-Haj Nuh b. Nijati b. Adam al-Ishqudri al-Albani al-Arnauti ( ar, مُحَمَّد نَاصِر ٱلدِّيْن ٱلْأَلْبَانِي الأرنؤوط), better known simply as Al-Albani (August 16, 1914 – October 2, 1999), ...
(d. 1999 C.E.) said that al-Waqidi is a liar.
;Supporters
Although Al-Waqidi had many detractors he also had many supporters amongst the early Muslims, including but not limited to:
* Al-Darawardi (d. 186 A.H): "Al-Waqidi is a master of traditions."
* Yazid ibn Harun (2d. 206 A.H.): "Al-Waqidi is reliable."
* Abu ‘Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Salam (d. 224 A.H.): "He is reliable."
* Al-Musayyibi (d. 236 A.H.): "Al-Waqidi is Reliable."
* ‘Abbas al-Anbari (d. 246 A.H.) I like him more than al-Razzaq.
* Ya’qub ibn Shaybah (d. 264 A.H.) Some of our people have told me that he was reliable.
* Mus’ab al-Zubayri (d. 236 A.H.)
* Ibrahim al-Harbi (d. 280 A.H.): "Al-Waqidi is a trustee of the people of Islam."
* Muhammad bin Salam Al-Jumahi said: "al-Waqidi is the scholar of his time."
Even among those who questioned his authenticity many still considered him a pillar in history and accepted his narrations in this regard. Ibn Hajar Asqalani records: "He is acceptable in the narrations of the battles according to our companions and Allah knows the best."[Talkhis al-Habir, Volume 7 page 57]
Early Islamic scholars
References
External links
Biodata at MuslimScholars.info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waqidi
740s births
822 deaths
8th-century Arabs
8th-century historians from the Abbasid Caliphate
9th-century Arabs
9th-century historians from the Abbasid Caliphate
9th-century Arabic writers
People from Medina
Arab Muslim historians of Islam
Arab people of Iranian descent