sīrah

Islamic literature

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

July 17, 2026

Quick Summary

The sīrah (Arabic for "biography") is a significant genre within Islamic literature, primarily focusing on the life of the Prophet Muhammad. While the Qurʾān offers limited biographical details, sīrah works, largely compiled in the 8th and 9th centuries, provide extensive accounts of Muhammad's life, his genealogy, the beginning of his mission, and his campaigns.123

One of the most important early sīrah works is by Ibn Isḥāq, later revised by Ibn Hishām. These biographies are crucial for understanding early Islamic history, though scholars note that they sometimes include miraculous elements and may incorporate biblical motifs. Despite variations and the late compilation of these texts, sīrah literature remains a foundational source for the traditional Islamic narrative of Muhammad's life.231

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

5 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

Arabic literature
Belles lettres and narrative prose
…raids during his lifetime) and sīrah (biographies of the Prophet). Beyond these specific genres, however, the logical structure of the khabar was replicated in a wide variety of other generic contexts. It is even possible to see the maqāmah genre (see below The concept of adab: Narratives of the imagination)…
Read More
…raids during his lifetime) and sīrah (biographies of the Prophet). Beyond these specific genres, however, the logical structure of the khabar was replicated in a wide variety of other generic contexts. It is even possible to see the maqāmah genre (see below The concept of adab: Narratives of the imagination)…
Read More

Muhammad
Biographical sources
…the Qurʾān, in the so-called sīrah (Arabic: “biography”) literature. Arguably the single most important work in the genre is Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq’s (died 767–768) Kitāb al-maghāzī (“Book of [the Prophet’s] Military Expeditions”). However, this work is extant only in later reworkings and abridgements, of which the best known is ʿAbd…
Read More
…the Qurʾān, in the so-called sīrah (Arabic: “biography”) literature. Arguably the single most important work in the genre is Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq’s (died 767–768) Kitāb al-maghāzī (“Book of [the Prophet’s] Military Expeditions”). However, this work is extant only in later reworkings and abridgements, of which the best known is ʿAbd…
Read More