Kitab al-Mubtada' (Ibn Ishaq)

[Donald E. Blais]

Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad, d. ca. 768
[Kitab al-Mubtada']
The Making of the Last Prophet:
a reconstruction of the earliest biography of Muhammad
/ [reconstructed] by Gordon Darnell Newby
Lib of Congress: BP137.I2413 1989
Dewey Decimal: 297'.63--dc19

[from the Introduction]

The Making of the Last Prophet is a reconstruction of the missing
first portion of Ibn Ishaq's Sirah [Sirat Rasul Allah], the earliest
full biography of Muhammad. It is also a study of Ibn Ishaq's
vision of Islam as the universal religion, the Quran as God's word,
and Muhammad as the ultimate prophet. By means of the reconstructed
text we can examine an early attempt to shape Muslim self-perceptions
and understandings.

[...]

Ibn Ishaq set an ambitious plan for his biography of Muhammad, a
plan that went well beyond the events of Muhammad's life and
political career. The Sirah began with creation, describes the
lives of all the prophets mentioned in the Quran--and some who were
not mentioned--and ended with Muhammad. The form was universal
history; the content was a mixture of Jewish Haggadah, Arab legend,
and Christian martyrology; and the effect was hagiography and
prophetology.

[...]

There are three sections of the Sirah: the Kitab al-Mubtada', the
Kitab al-Mab`tah, and the Kitab al-Maghazi. Each of these sections
is distinguished by subject and, to some extent, by source material.
The Kitab al-Mubtada', the first section, covers the period from
Creation up to the beginning of Arabian pre-Islamic history. It
includes the Arabian prophets Hud and Salih as well as the Arabian
interests of Adam, Abraham, Solomon, and Bilqis, but its primary
focus is on the ancient history of God's revelations to the world.
The title, Kitab al-Mubtada', can be translated as "The Book of
Beginnings" or "The Book of Genesis."

The Kitab as-Mab`ath starts with Arabian events that lead directly
to the stories of the birth and ealy life of Muhammad. The scope is
first all Arabia, but as the chronological presentation comes closer
to Muhammad's birth, the focus is on the Hijaz, and finally on
Mecca. There are tales of Jews, Christians, and pagans foretelling
the coming of Muhammad and his prophetic mission. The Kitab
al-Mab`ath is "The Book of Sending Forth" or "The Book of the Advent."

The Kitab al-Maghazi covers Muhammad's career as a prophet,
community leader, and military commander. This is the section of
the Sirah that is most biographical in the modern, Western sense of
the term. This "Book of Military Campaigns" is the political and
military history of the formation of the community of Islam up to
Muhammad's death in 632 C.E.

Ibn Ishaq includes or refers to passages from the Quran in all three
sections of the Sirah, although it cannot be considerd a Quran
commentary primarily. Each of the stories assumes a knowledge of
the Quran.

[...]

For Ibn Ishaq and his contemporaries the Kitab al-Mubtada' and the
rest of the Sirah explained the history of the world in Quranic and
Muslim terms. It put Muhammad into the divine scheme and integrated
his actions with actions of the prophets of the past. The Quran
promotes such a view of history; the Sirah merely makes it explicit,
expands it, and offers more proof than the sparse references in
Scripture. The restoration of the Kitab al-Mubtada' and its
addition to the Sirah lets us peek at one of Islam's earliest
attempts to come to terms with Judaism and Christianity. We see
Islam before the development of the great scholastic schools of
Greek philosophy. We can hear the echoes of rabbinic lore as it is
read into Islamicate literary traditions. To historians and
students of religion the collection of reports assembled by the
genius of Ibn Ishaq is a trove of insights into the Judaic and
Isalmic past.

--
Donald E. Blais Internet: bl...@emx.utexas.edu
Computation Center Bitnet: blais@utxvms
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Austin, TX 78712 Phone: +1 512-471-6387 +1 512-471-3241