Ibn Hišām

• Era — Abbasid era • Name — Ibn Hisham • Died — 7 May 833/13 Rabīʿ II 218 • Religion — Islam • Region — Basra and Egypt • Main Interests — Prophetic biography • Influences — Ibn Ishaq • Notable Works — The Life of the Prophet • Native Name — بن هشام

Ibn Hisham has been said to have grown up in Basra and moved afterwards to Egypt. His family was native to Basra but he himself was born in Old Cairo. He gained a name as a grammarian and student of language and history in Egypt. His family was of Himyarite origin and belonged to Banu Ma‘afir tribe of Yemen.

As-Sīrah an-Nabawiyyah (السيرة النبوية), 'The Life of the Prophet'; is an edited recension of Ibn Isḥāq's classic Sīratu Rasūli l-Lāh (سيرة رسول الله) 'The Life of God's Messenger'. Ibn Isḥāq's now lost work survives only in Ibn Hishām's and al-Tabari's recensions, although fragments of several others survive, and Ibn Hishām and al-Tabarī share virtually the same material. Ibn Hishām explains in the preface of the work, the criteria by which he made his choice from the original work of Ibn Isḥāq in the tradition of his disciple Ziyād al-Baqqāʾi (d. 799). Accordingly, Ibn Hishām omits stories from Al-Sīrah that contain no mention of Muḥammad, certain poems, traditions whose accuracy Ziyād al-Baqqāʾi could not confirm, and offensive passages that could offend the reader. Al-Tabari includes controversial episodes of the Satanic Verses including an apocryphal story about Muḥammad's attempted suicide. Ibn Hishām gives more accurate versions of the poems he includes and supplies explanations of difficult terms and phrases of the Arabic language, additions of genealogical content to certain proper names, and brief descriptions of the places mentioned in Al-Sīrah. Ibn Hishām appends his notes to the corresponding passages of the original text with the words: "qāla Ibn Hishām" (Ibn Hishām says).

Ibn Hisham also known as the author of the commentaries of The Book of Crowns on the Kings of Himyar. Ibn Hisham reported that he acquired the book narrative from 'Abd al-Mun'im Idris.‘Abd al-Mun’im ibn Idris ibn Sinan were acknowledged as author of Hadith chain traditions and lores. He gained notoriety for being trustworthy that various Hadith scholars such as Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Daraqutni, Ali ibn al-Madini and Abu Zur’ah deemed him as liar and weak as narrator. Ibn Hisham, who authored the commentaries of this book, also gave his own analysis that the Yemen region name were given from their primordial founder, Ya'rub (son of Qahtan), who also known by his other name, "Yaman".

• Al falah foundation. Cairo, Egypt. online link

• online link

• Kitab al-Tijan li ma'rifati muluk al-zamān fi akhbar Qahtān (كتاب التيجان لمعرفة ملوك الزمان في أخبار قحطان) 'The Book of Crowns, on the kings of yesteryear in the accounts of the Qahtān' (in Arabic); a genealogical work with historico-legendary accounts of the southern Arabs and their monuments in pre-Islamic times.