Journal of Arabic Literature· 2022Q4
Al-Balādhurī’s Prophet’s Biography: Narrative in Service of Politics
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- 2022year
Short summary
Al-Balādhurī's first volume of Ansāb al-ashrāf, dedicated to the Prophet Muhammad's life, was written primarily for political reasons to legitimize Abbasid rule by enhancing the role of Abbasid symbols and ancestry in early Islam.
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Key points
- Al-Balādhurī's biography of the Prophet Muhammad served political purposes.
- The work aimed to legitimize the ruling Abbasid dynasty.
- It achieved this by enhancing the portrayal of Abbasid symbols and ancestry within early Islamic history.
- A key strategy involved positively linking the Prophet to al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the eponym of the Abbasid dynasty.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Abstract The monumental multi-volume work Ansāb al-ashrāf, authored by Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā al-Balādhurī, represents an intellectual edifice recognized by many scholars. However, this paper endeavors to discuss in depth the first volume of it, which al-Balādhurī dedicated to the life of the Prophet Muḥammad, and attempts to show that the underlying reasons for writing another biography of the Prophet—in an age where the Sīrah of the Prophet was well established—were mainly political and personal, linked in particular to the rule of the ʿAbbāsids. It aimed to legitimize ʿAbbāsid rule by systematically and subtly enhancing the role of ʿAbbāsid symbols and ancestry in the formation of early Islam, mainly by linking the eponym of the ʿAbbasid dynasty, al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, to a positive image of the Prophet.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Journal of Arabic Literature, 2022 · DOI ↗
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Field: Political Science and International Relations
Political Science and International RelationsSocial Sciences