Muhammad: One Story, Multiple Narratives

Abstract

This paper aims at comparing a few biographies of the Prophet Muhammad. It focuses on the conflicts between Muhammad and the Jews of al-Madīna: Banū Qaynuqā‘, Banū al-Naḍīr, and Banū Qurayẓa, in six biographies: Ibn Isḥāq and al-Wāqidi from the medieval period and Haykal, al-Ghazāli, Gabriel, and Hazleton from the 20th and 21st centuries. The comparison suggests that both classical and modern sīra writers employ various techniques to tell a story that conforms to their viewpoints. Sīra works are then creative representations of history rather than factual accounts of it, and as such, they are overloaded with the authors’ viewpoints. The paper proposes a way of reading Muhammad’s biographies, which distinguishes between story (the objective elements of actions, people, time and place) and discourse (the subjective and/or creative representation of events and people). This analysis of Prophet Muhammad’s biographies as including both story and discourse is helpful in understanding both the narrative and people as represented in different biographies.