Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

xxxii
The Life of Muhammad
cannot be accurately assessed.' The abridged translation byWellhausen'
gives the reader all the salient facts, but his method of epltomlzmg en~ble~
him to avoid difficulties in the text whIch call for explanatlOn. Waqldl
makes no mention of I.I. among his authorities. The reason for this
doubtless is that he did not want to refer to a man who already enjoyed a
great reputation as an authority on maghiizi and so let it se~m that his own
book was a mere amplification of his predecessor's. It IS by no means
certain that he made use of I.I.'s book, or traditional lore, for he quoted
his authorities, e.g. al-Zuhri, Mamar, and others, directly. On the other
hand he did not belittle 1.1. of whom he spoke warmly as a chromcler,
gene~ogist, and traditionist, who transmitted poetry and was an indefatigable
searcher of tradition, a man to be trusted. 3 .
It follows that strictly Waqidi is not a writer from whom m tbe present
state of our knowledge we can reconstruct the original of the Sira;, bU,t as
his narrative often runs parallel with LI.'s work, sometimes abndgmg,
sometimes expanding, his stories it is a valuable i~ uncontrolled s~pport~r
thereof. Not until his Maghiizi has been pubhshed and studIed as It
deserves to be can a satisfactory comparison of the two books be ma~e.
One thing is abundantly clear, namely that Waqidi often includes sw,nes
which obviously come from eyewitnesses and often throw valuable hght
on events which are obscure in 1.1. Indeed it ought to be said that the
Sfra is incomplete without Waqidi. 4 .
2. AI-Azraq'i's Akhbiir Makka is of great value in matters archaeologIcal.
His authority is 'Uthman b. Saj. . .
3. I. S.a