Ibāḍī Writings Concerning the Life of Prophet Muḥammad: Historiography, Ḥadīth Transmission, Theology, and Legal Integration - Fāris, Walīd; al-Muʼtamar al-Duwalī al-ʻĀshir: al-Sīrah al-Nabawīyah fī al-Turāth al-ʻUmānī (2026) (Kuwālā Lumbūr) (Kuwālā Lumbūr : Markaz Dhākirat ʻUmān, 2026)
The study of Ibāḍī writings concerning the life of the Prophet Muḥammad raises historiographical and methodological questions that have only recently begun to receive sustained scholarly attention. Unlike Sunni Islam, where independent biographical works such as the recension of Ibn Hishām (d. 218/833) preserve the earlier sīrah of Ibn Isḥāq (d. 150/767), and unlike Shiʿi Islam, which integrates prophetic biography within an imamate-centred sacred history, Ibāḍī Islam does not transmit a comprehensive, standalone chronological sīrah text running from birth to death. That absence has sometimes led to the mistaken conclusion that Ibāḍīs held a diminished interest in the life of the Prophet. Modern scholarship demonstrates that this assumption does not hold. The paper accordingly locates the Ibāḍī sīrah question and examines how material on the Prophet's life is carried within Ibāḍī historiography, hadith transmission, theology, and the integration of prophetic precedent into legal reasoning.
Permanent citation identifier: MHF-SIRA2026-006.
Text in English.
Keywords: Ibāḍī studies; Sīrah; Islamic historiography; Hadith transmission; Islamic theology; Islamic law