Turning points and the people behind them

Look for what changed before and after each episode, and for who is said to have acted. Separate what a source reports from what you conclude about its importance.

Al-Mubarakpuri, in The Sealed Nectar, and al-Mas'udi, in Muruj al-dhahab, describe the Hijra as the migration of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE, the fourteenth year of the mission ^2 3. His companions had already begun to emigrate before him ^4 5. In al-Mubarakpuri's account he left his house on the night of 27 Safar, corresponding to 12/13 September 622 CE ². Al-Mas'udi says he went out of Mecca with Abu Bakr and Abu Bakr's freedman Amir ibn Fuhayra (may God be pleased with him), and that their guide was Abdullah ibn Urayqit ³. He hid in the cave of Thawr for three nights, and then travelled from the cave to Medina ^6 7. Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) remained in Mecca three days after him, and then joined him ³.

Two ways of asking about Muhammad. The Encyclopaedia of Islam article on him opens with the Muslim understanding: belief that he is the Messenger of God stands second only to belief in the oneness of God in the creed of the shahada, and the article adds that the Qur'an and Islamic orthodoxy insist that he was fully human and had no supernatural powers of his own ⁸. It then separates two inquiries. For the believer, God chose Muhammad and was directly responsible for his success. For the historian, the evidence points to a man of remarkable leadership and a charismatic personality who drew strong leaders to him. The article calls the two views not necessarily incompatible, but different inquiries with different methods ⁸. The museum decides nothing between them.

Dates that look fixed. In al-Mubarakpuri's account the Prophet reached Quba on Monday 8 Rabi' al-Awwal, corresponding to 23 September 622 CE ^9 10, while al-Mas'udi dates his entry into Medina to Monday, when twelve nights of Rabi' al-Awwal had passed ³. The museum's record says historians debate the exact sequence of events, so its dates are marked as traditional ¹¹. The Encyclopaedia of Islam article on the Hijra, by W. Montgomery Watt, argues that the Arabic word does not properly mean "flight", as it has traditionally been translated ¹².

The Encyclopaedia of Islam names the Qur'an as the most trustworthy source and also the hardest to use, since it was never meant as biography, and says that the maghazi, sira, tafsir and hadith genres were not written to record his life as such ^8 13. For the Farewell Pilgrimage the museum relays what Ibn Hisham relates from Ibn Ishaq, who gives the sermon's text; it includes the prohibition of blood and property, the abolition of usury and his saying that he left among them the Book of God and the Sunna of His Prophet ¹⁴. On the birth, al-Mubarakpuri equates the year of the Elephant with 20 or 22 April 571 CE ¹⁵, while the article rejects the tradition of birth in that year and prefers to leave the year open ¹³.

If you wrote the date of Muhammad's birth on a timeline for your class, which source would you follow, al-Mubarakpuri or the Encyclopaedia of Islam, and what would you write beside the date to show the other source's view, and why?

• Muhammad: his life as al-Mubarakpuri tells it, and the encyclopaedia's account of the sources for his life.
• The Hijra: the accounts and their differing dates, and the academic account of why he left Mecca.
• The Farewell Pilgrimage: what Ibn Hisham relates from Ibn Ishaq, and what the encyclopaedia says of the pilgrimage.
• The Farewell Sermon at Arafat: the sermon on its own page.