| Book | Type/scope | Illustr. inside | Cover art | In Bennett |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Watt, WM (1961). Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. OUP. p. 250. | historical & religious[1] bio. | two maps | mihrab[2] | section[3] |
Guillaume, A (1955[4]). The life of Muhammad: a translation of Isḥāq's Sīrat rasūl Allāh. OUP. p. 813. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); ref stripmarker in |year= at position 5 (help)CS1 maint: year (link) |
Ibn Ishaq#Biography of Muhammad | none | blob (the sun?) | extensively[5] |
| Peters, FE (1994). Muhammad and the origins of Islam. SUNY Press. p. 334. | secular biography | none | square Kufic (tawhid?) | citations[6] |
Maxime Rodinson (1961[7]). Muhammad: prophet of Islam. various. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); ref stripmarker in |year= at position 5 (help)CS1 maint: year (link) |
Marxist biography[8] | two maps | mosque inscription[9] | citations[10] |
| Bennett, C (1998). In Search of Muhammad. Continuum; Cassell. p. 276. | survey of bio. works[11] | none | Mi'raj painting (veiled) | — |
Khan, AW (2002). The Life of Prophet Muhammad. IIPH. p. 60. {{cite book}}: External link in |
bio. w/ religious tone & focus | none | Arabic calligraphy | no |
A general note about English-language biographies of Muhammad
editFrom the introduction to The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad (2010), which is a collection of essays, p. 13:
| “ | In the past fifty years, scholars have tended to shy away from sweeping treatments of Muhammad’s life, leaving to writers such as Karen Armstrong and Hans Küng the task of reconciling Muhammad’s story with modern life. The appearance of Michael Cook’s Muhammad in 1986 is remarkable for its exception to this trend, yet it also is arguably less a biography of Muhammad than it is a study of problems facing anyone who would write such a biography. Instead, Western scholars have either retreated into specific, narrow studies or rejected the search for the historical Muhammad altogether. | ” |
Footnotes
edit- ^ In the sense that Watt also give his opinion on whether the Quran is divinely inspired [1], etc.
- ^ from the Mosque of Ibn Tulun (said on the back cover)
- ^ Also described as among the "standard biographies" by Bennett on p.1 and similarly "standard biography of Muhammad" in Wilferd Madelung's The Succession to Muhammad, p. 5
- ^ 7th reprint in 2004
- ^ used as standard translation and abbreviated as I.I; also Guillaume's notes on various issues are cited, e.g. was it permitted to record Muhammad's daily activities, etc.
- ^ for Peters' evaluation of primary biographical sources for Muhammad's life, his opinions on various events in Muhammad's life, especially early ones.
- ^ Many reprints, translations, and 2 or 3 editions
- ^ still considered among the "standard biographies" by Bennett, p. 1
- ^ this is for the 2002 English edition, others may vary
- ^ especially on the historicity of various events
- ^ Bennett does emit his own opinions, but a large portion of the books is relating other biographers' approaches to Muhammad
- ^ IIPS publishes a lot of booklets like that. Some of them are even shorter, e.g. just 35pp. They are rather obviously intended for religious consumption; PBUH everywhere.