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Ibn Ishaq (or ibn Ishaq), (d. 768), was an Arabic historian who lived in Medina, where he interested himself to such an extent in the details of Muhammad's life that he was attacked by those to whom his work seemed to have a rationalistic tendency. His work is lost and is now only known in the recension of other historians like Ibn Hisham and Tabari.
He consequently left Medina in 733, and went to Alexandria, then to Kufa and Hira, and finally to Baghdad, where the caliph Mansur provided him with the means of writing his great work. This was the Life of the Apostle of God, which is now known to us only in the recensions of Ibn Hisham and at-Tabari. The work has been attacked by Arabian writers (as in the Fihrist) as untrustworthy – particularly for his mention of the so-called "Satanic Verses" – and it seems clear that he introduced forged verses (cf. Journal of the German Oriental Society, xiv. 288 sqq.). It remains, however, one of the most important works of the age.
Reference
- This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.
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