The Earliest Biographies of the Prophet and Their Authors

Josef Horovitz (1874-1931) wrote this classic monograph a century ago in two parts in German. The editor added footnotes, corrections and the preface, and it is now a book in its own right.

The translation was prepared by Marmaduke Pickthall (d. 1936). Lawrence I. Conrad, who re-edited the articles also presents a slightly corrected textual version, expanding and updating the notes and bibliography and adding a new introduction dealing with Horovitz’s and other orientalists’ work on early Islam in the early 20th century.

Horovitz deals with thirteen early scholars who transmitted traditions or compiled sīra or maghāzī works, such as ʿUrwa b. al-Zubayr (d. ca. 713), Ibn Isḥāq (d. 767) and al-Wāqidī (d. 823).

1. Maghāzī Authorities among the Tābi'ūn
2. The Early Medinans
3. The Students of al-Zuhrī
4. Maghāzī under the Early 'Abbāsids