WEST AFRICA, POSSIBLY NORTHERN NIGERIA OR MALI, CIRCA 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY

This work has been wrongly attributed to Ibn al-Jawzi (d.1201 AD). However, Marion Homes Katz notes that the author was identified by the Yemeni scholar Ibn Dayba' (d.1537 AD) as Shibab al-Din Ahmad bin 'Ali bin Qasim al-Maliki al-Bukhari al-Andalusi al-Mursi al-Lakhmi, known as al-Hariri. Al-Hariri's dates are unknown but we know from his nisba that he was originally from Bukhara and travelled to Andalusia. Ibn al-Dayba' states that this book is the ninth section of a larger work of religious discourses (Marion Holmes Katz, The Birth of The Prophet Muhammad: Devotional Piety in Sunni Islam, Abingdon, 2007, p.52). This attribution is supported by an 18th century scholar, Fath Allah al-Bannani. Homes Katz also notes that the true authorship of these very popular works has long been obscure and that their complete titles and correct authors disappeared over centuries of copying and recitation.

This text shares a number of features with another work, Sharaf al-An'am and was probably composed in Spain. These works combine major elements of the popular stories and accounts relating to the Prophet Muhammad's birth and numerous variants have been written through the ages.

We are grateful to Dale J. Correa, Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, New York University, for his help in identifying the subject of this manuscript.