Why Did al-Baladhuri Write The Sirah of the Prophet?

Abstract

The monumental multi-volume work Ansāb al-Ashrāf authored by Aḥmad b. Yaḥya al-Balādhurī represents an intellectual edifice recognized by many scholars. This paper however intends to discuss in depth the first volume of it dedicated to the life of the Prophet Muḥammad and it tries 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 ‘Abbasids: legitimization of the ‘Abbasid rule by systematically and subtly enhancing the role of ‘Abbasid symbols and ancestry in the formation of early Islam mainly al-‘Abbās b. ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib, the eponym of the ‘Abbasid dynasty and linking him to an improved image of the Prophet