Abstract
The personality of the renowned early muslim historian Muhammad Bin Umar AlWaqidi has been disputed from the very first day he got recognition and fame in the second half of 2nd century of Hijrah. In fact, he was an outstanding historian who introduced new trends in writing and composition of historic narratives. Probably he was the first Muslim historian who talked about (and applied) the historical events and what were root causes of their happening and finally analyzed their consequences.Despite of all these qualities, he was critically criticized by Muhadditheen (traditionists) due not to be following their rampant applied methodology in hadith transmission at that time. Basically he differed from them in the issue of isnad (the chain of transmitters) and the acceptance of some historical texts through people (narrators) who were not authentic and fulfilling the merit of muhadditheen. Al-Waqidi massively quoted a huge amount of narratives from this kind of people, that’s why he got harshly criticized by them. Nevertheless, there was lot of muhadditheen who considered Al-Waqidi an authentic and reliable source for historical narratives, especially the Holy Prophet’s campaigns during the last decade of his life in Madinah. It was not only their consideration for him but they quoted extensively AlWaqidi’s narratives in their works on the life of Holy Prophet PBUH. It’s well to know that most of Muslim historians consider Al-Waqidi a reliable and trustworthy source for historical narrations. That’s why they are not reluctant to cite AlWaqidi in their books where do they need him. The article highlights and discusses the allegations Al-waqis has been accused of them from different perspective, so the picture may clear more explicitly.
Keyword(s)
fact behind the allegations, Al-Waqidi, accused, Analytical Study