AL-WAQIDI

Like Muhammad B. Ishaq, Muhammad B. Umar al-Waqidi also belongs to the group of Mawali living in Madinah. He bore the surname al-Waqidi after his grandfather al-Waqid, but as Mawla of the Madinan sept of Banu Sahm b. Aslam he is called al-Aslami 1. According to another account, he was the Mawla of Banu Hashim2. His secretary, Ibn Saad, who was one of his pupils, said that Waqidi was born in Madinah in 130/748, during the Caliphate of Marwan II and his mother was a great-grand daughter of Saib Khathir 3 who was one of the famouse singers of Hijaz4. In his native city , Waqidi listened to the discourses of the most renowned exponents of tradition, like Mamar b. Rashid, Malik b. Anas and Sufyan ath-Thawri. Among his famous teachers from whom he reports most of his accounts on the Maghazi and history was Abu Mashar as-Sindi, whose name was Najib, one of the famous scholars of Madinah 5, and the author of Kitabul Maghazi whose numerous fragments are to be found in the Kitabul-Maghazi of Waqidi6. When The Caliph Harun ar Rashid visited Madinah on the pilgrimage probably in the year 170/786, Waqidi was recommended to him as a guide to the holy places of the city 7, after which the Caliph ordered 10,000 dirhams to be paid to Waqidi with the invitation by the Caliphs vizier, Yahya b. Khalid al-Barmaki for him to seek them out wherever they may be and wherever their place of residence may be set up. This opportunity was seized by Waqidi in 180/796, when he happened to be in distress and he be took himself to Baghdad and thence to Raqqah where Harun held court at that time8. At the court, Waqidi was welcomed and treated very cordially by Yahya b. Khalid, and was presented with bountiful gifts which he9 very gratefully remembers

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Harovitz, The Earliest Biographies, etc., No. IV, p.498. Amin, Duha Al-Islam, Vol. II, p. 333 Harovitz, op.cit.,pp. 498-9 Shawqi Dayf, at-Tatawwur wat-tajdid fish-shir al-Umawi, p.30, ( Cairo 1959 ) Amin, op cit, p. 333 ( Amin,Duhal- Islam, vol. II p.332. Harovitz, The Earliest Biographies, etc., No. IV, p.497 ibid. p.495. Ibid, p. 500 Ibid, p. 501 Him

even after the downfull of Yahya and has full sympathy to him 10 of his journey to the court of the Caliph as of the account of the Caliphs visit to Madinah. Ibn Saad has preserved for us a detailed and observant account which goes back to Waqidi himself. According to a statement, the source of which is not communicated, Harun ar-Rashid had charged Waqidi with the office of judge over the east side of Baghdad, and from another report it appears that in 187/803, he was already a judge, therefore, in the case too, under Harun. The oldest biographies know nothing of that and mention only that al-Mamun appointed Waqidi judge of Askar of al-Mahdi or Rusafah (on the east side of Baghdad) after his (Waqidi) entry into Baghdad of the beginning of 204/819. He died at the end of 207/822, at the age of 78 years, and was laid to rest in the al-Khayzuran cementry. Waqidi was a zealous collector of knowledge propagated in his time and had all scripts accessible to him copied. At his death he is said to have left 600 chests of books, the work of two slaves who copied for him day and night. Moreover, he had bought books to the value of 2000 dinars. The collections formed the basis of his own literary activity, which extended over various fields. The Fihrist offers a list of his works consisting of 28 numbers and Yaqut, Mujam alUdaba, gives one agreeing with it in essentials 11. Waqidi was an expert in all branches of knowledge especially in the Maghazi and the Sirah, and in the history of Islam in general 12. AlKhatib al-Baghdadi relates; Waqidi was the most erudite of men in the affairs of Islam; but of the pre-Islamic period he did nothing13. He mad thorough investigations concerning the history of Islam of which he himself relates; Whoever person I met among the children of the Prophets Companions, the children of the martyers and their Mawali I would ask him whether he had heard a member of his family tell him about martyre, his martyrdom and where he had been killed? As soon as he told me that such martyre was killed in such a place, I straightway went to the place and investigated it. I even went to al-Muraysi and looked at the place. I never left a graveyard of any warrior whom I knew without visiting and investigating it14.

10 11

Amin Duhal islam vol.11p.334 Horovitz, The Earliest Biographies,etc., no. IV, pp. 514-5; Ibn Sad, Tabaqat, vol. v. pp. 425334 12 Amin, Duhal-Islam.Vol. II, p.334 13 Al-khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad, Vol. III, p.5 14 Ibid.,p.6

Waqidi works which have been preserved for us in fragments were the sources for later historians, in the case of Ibn Hubayshs work on the Maghazi, for instance, we find most of his accounts concerning the apostasy were derived from Waqidi 15. And his book the TarikhulKabir which was evidently a work in which all the important events of Islamic history were enumerated in the form of annals, and reached at least up to the year 179/795, has been preserved for us by Tabari in numerous fragments from the Tarikh which Waqidi, it would seem had finished before he settled in Baghdad16. Of all Waqidis writings the Kitabul- Maghazi alone has been preserved to us complete, and as a substantial book. Alfred Von Kremer published the first third of the text of this work in the Bibliotheca Indica after an incomplete MS found by his at Damascus. One other incompleted and one complete manuscript of the whole book are to be found in the British Museum, and the abridged German version which Julius Wellhausen published under the little of Muhammad in Madinah rests on the MSS17. At the beginning at his Kitabul Maghazi, Waqidi gives a list of weightiest direct authorities consisting of 25 names almost all of them were native of Madinah or had come to live thre and among such direct or indirect authorities figure chiefly those authors of biographies of the Prophet whom we have already valued; Zuhri, Mamar, Abu Mashur: also, but more rarely, Musa b. Uqbah, and Ibn Ishaq never at all. That is all the more remakable because Waqidi, in a biographical article preserved in Tabari, expresses himself concerning Ibn Ishaq with great approval : He belonged to those learned in the Maghazi and Ayyamul- Arab, and their stories and geneologies, was a transmitter of their poems, had a comprehensive acquatance with Hadith, was rich in knowledge, eagerly intent to collect it, filled a prominent position in the world of science and was trustworthy withal18. He has made use of Ibn Ishaqs work and perhaps has drawn upon it even more than that of any other of his forerunners and possibly that was just the reason why he did not wish to make Ibn Ishaqs share too conspicuous by frequent mention of his name and contented himself with including him among those anonymous sources of whom he says at the end of his list : Others besides those mentioned have transmitted reports to me19.
15 16 17 18 19

Amin, Duhal-islam, Vol II,p.335 Horovitz, The Earliest Biographies etc, No. IV, p.516 Ibid.,p.517 Horovitz, The Earliest Biographies, etc, No. IV, p.518 Ibid.,pp.518-9

Among the traditionist there are those who accept Waqidi as trustworthy and those who repudiate him, but, however , Malik who as we have already seen has repudiated Ibn Ishaq, accepts Waqidi as trustworthy20. It seems that he traditionists repudiation of Waqidi as they did against Ibn Ishaq, is that Waqidi did not bind himself to the method of traditionists which they strictly followed. He sometimes derives his accounts from books or written materials (Suhuf) and reports only combined text of a Hadith of various authorities 21. But, while he is repudiated as a Muhaddith, he is held as a sound authority for the Sirah, the Maghazi, the Conquest and Fiqh 22. He is among weightiest authorities of Tabari in his history23. In the Fihrist, Waqidi is describe as a Shite, but of the moderate sect. An utterance of his is quoted, according to which Ali was one of the miracles of the Prophet, as the rod which changed into a serpent was one of the miracles of Moses and the raising of the dead was among those of Jesus24. His close contact with Abasid Caliph and his respect for the ruling house had caused him to Omit the name af al-Abbas from the list of the opponents of the Prophet taken prisoners at Badr and in the catalogue of those who furnished the army of Quraysh with provisions (Mutimun) to substitute a Fulan for al-Abbass name. Similarty it is to please the ruling House that Waqidi puts in the statement that al-Abbas stood first in the list of pensions established by Umar.

"A study of At-Tabari's historiography with special reference to the period 41-86/661-705, in the history of the Umayyads"

20 21 22 23 24

Amin, Duhal-Islam, Vol. II,p,336 Ibid., p.337. Horovitz, The Earliest Biographies, etc.,No.IV, p.520 Amin, op.cit.,p.337 Ibn an-Nadim,al-Fihrist,p.98