Al-Balādhurī's Prophet's Biography: Narrative in Service of Politics

Abstract

The monumental multi-volume work Ansāb al-ashrāf, authored by Ahmad b. Yahyā 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 Muhammad, 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 'Abbāsids. It aimed to legitimize 'Abbāsid rule by systematically and subtly enhancing the role of 'Abbāsid symbols and ancestry in the formation of early Islam, mainly by linking the eponym of the 'Abbasid dynasty, al-'Abbās b. 'Abd al-Muttalib, to a positive image of the Prophet.