The question/debate of what events in Muhammad's life are historical
Part of a series on
Muhammad
Life
Mecca
Hijrah
Medina
After Conquest of Mecca
Farewell Pilgrimage (Farewell Sermon)
Hadith
Milestones and records
Career
Military
Diplomatic
Miracles
Quran (First revelation)
Isra and Mi'raj
Splitting of the Moon
Views
Jews
Christians
Perspectives
Islam
Bible
Judaism
Medieval Christian
Historicity
Criticism
Succession
Saqifah
Ghadir Khumm
Companions of Muhammad
Hadith of the pen and paper
Ahl al-Bayt
Praise
Salawat
Naat
Mawlid
Related
Al-Masjid an-Nabawi
Possessions
Relics
Seal
History of Islam
Islam portal
Biography portal
v
t
e
The historicity of Muhammad refers to the study of Muhammad as a historical figure and critical examination of sources upon which traditional accounts (the Quran, sīrah, hadith especially) are based.
The earliest Muslim source of information for the life of Muhammad, the Quran, gives very little personal information and its historicity is debated.[1][2] Prophetic biography, known as sīra, along with attributed records of the words, actions, and the silent approval of Muhammad, known as hadith, survive in the historical works of writers from the second and third centuries of the Muslim era (c. 700−1000 CE),[3][4] and give a great deal of information on Muhammad, but the reliability of this information is very much debated in some academic circles. In addition there are a relatively small number of contemporaneous or near-contemporaneous non-Muslim sources which attest to the existence of Muhammad and are valuable both in themselves and for comparison with Muslim sources.[2]
Despite any difficulties with the biographical sources, scholars generally see valuable historical information about Muhammad therein and suggest that what is needed are methods to be able to sort out the likely from the unlikely.[5] The majority of classical scholars believe Muhammad existed as a historical figure.[6]
^Encyclopaedia of Islam, Muhammad
^ abNigosian 2004, p. 6.
^Donner 1998, p. 125.
^William Montgomery Watt, Muhammad in Mecca, 1953, Oxford University Press, p.xi
^Peters, F.E. (August 1991). "The Quest of the Historical Muhammad". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 23 (3): 307. doi:10.1017/S0020743800056312. S2CID 162433825.
^Berg, Herbert; Rollens, Sarah (2008). "The historical Muhammad and the historical Jesus: A comparison of scholarly reinventions and reinterpretations". Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses. 37 (2): 271–292. doi:10.1177/000842980803700205. S2CID 144445914.
and 28 Related for: Historicity of Muhammad information
Chronology of Jesus Denial of the virgin birth of Jesus Historical background of the New Testament HistoricityofMuhammadHistoricityof the Bible Jesus...
Historicity of Jesus Historicity of King Arthur HistoricityofMuhammadHistoricityof the Bible Historicityof the Book of Mormon Historicityof the Iliad...
(Fomenko) New Chronology (Rohl) Revised chronology of Immanuel Velikovsky Jean Hardouin HistoricityofMuhammad Hans-Ulrich Niemitz, Did the Early Middle Ages...
Criticism of the Quran HistoricityofMuhammad Early Quranic manuscripts Codex Parisino-petropolitanus Topkapi manuscript Samarkand Kufic Quran History of the...
films List of animated Islamic films Depictions ofMuhammadHistoricityofMuhammad History of Islam List of biographies ofMuhammadMuhammad in Islam Prophetic...
their historicity. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad himself was a Hanif and one of the descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham. The second half of the...
the Quran Criticism of Islam Depictions ofMuhammadHistoricityofMuhammad Islam and other religions Muhammad and Joseph Smith Islam and violence Domestic...
do not accept the historicity, see "Kuran", Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd Edition, Vol. 5 (1986), p. 404 "Muḥammad," Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition...
φιλολογία (philología) 'love of word') is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary...
HistoricityofMuhammad Fred Donner (2001). "Review: The Quest for the Historical Muhammad". Middle East Studies Association Bulletin. University of Chicago...
construct historical rankings of the success of the presidents of the United States. Ranking systems are usually based on surveys of academic historians and...
encompass "every kind of evidence that human beings have left of their past activities — the written word and spoken word, the shape of the landscape and...
historical rankings of individuals who have served as prime minister of Canada. These ranking systems are usually based on surveys of academic historians...
The "century of humiliation" (Chinese: 百年国耻, lit. "hundred years of national disgrace") is a term used among the Sinosphere to describe the period in Chinese...
professionals, in historic preservation can be divided into the practice areas of regulatory compliance, architecture and construction, historic sites/museums...
Historic recurrence is the repetition of similar events in history. The concept ofhistoric recurrence has variously been applied to overall human history...
Following the creation of the concept in the 19th century, the Sea Peoples' incursions became one of the most famous chapters of Egyptian history, given...
The Ages of Man are the historical stages of human existence according to Greek mythology and its subsequent Roman interpretation. Both Hesiod and Ovid...
ventured to postulate the non-historicityof Jesus, or at any rate very few have, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very...
The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was about 40 million: estimates range from around 15 to 22 million deaths and about...
January 2024. "A Brief History of Architecture in Britain" (PDF). University of Southampton. "The Scientific Revolution". Historic UK. Retrieved 17 January...
Greek, and Assyrian genocides that occurred during the 1910s–1920s as parts of a single event rather than separate events, which were initiated by the Young...
part of ancient Greek literature and held a prestigious place in later Roman historiography and Byzantine literature. The historical period of ancient...
construction of state museums, the preservation of national historic sites, and the construction ofhistoric highways; compiling genealogies; interviewing former...
A series of disputes between Canadian historians in the 1980s and 1990s that focused on the legacy of its Persecution of First Nations, including Canadian...