Si ra-maghazi, which tells of the life of the Prophet and the early Islamic community, is not a historical genre. A literary mode which has its origins in an oral transmission, it is essentially hagiographic in spirit. The literature carries some unique characteristics. Constituted of numerous individual traditions juxtaposed one next to the other, it is--other than for those key events that have become mythologized--essentially dependent on the compiler and his purpose for its layout. / This dissertation explores the genre through a comparative case study of Muhammad and the Jews as narrated in the Kitab si rat rasul Allah of lbn Ishaq and the Kitab al-maghazi of al-Waqidi. Appreciating the interpretation of the individual compiler concerned, it compares, in terms of method, structure, sources, chronology, and style, their different approaches to the subject of the early establishment of Islam. The differences reinforce the argument for appreciating si ra-maghazi as literary rather than a historical genre. More importantly, they bring into focus the tendentious nature of si ra-maghazi to understand why neither one of these texts may be used to substantiate the information in the other.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.28738 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Faizer, Rizwi Shuhadha, 1946- |
| Contributors | Little, D. P. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Institute of Islamic Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001460389, proquestno: NN05701, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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