Andalusi Sīra Writing from the Third Century to the Fall of al-Andalus (Transformation from Historical to Legal Tradition in the Maliki-Salafi School)

Karimi Manjarmoui, Zahra; Bigdeli, Hamid Reza; Mousavi, Seyed Naser

doi:10.22034/jatj.2026.567175.1075

Andalusi Sīra Writing from the Third Century to the Fall of al-Andalus (Transformation from Historical to Legal Tradition in the Maliki-Salafi School)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Zahra Karimi Manjarmoui ¹

Hamid Reza Bigdeli ²

Seyed Naser Mousavi ²

¹ PhD student in the History of Shiʿism, University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, Iran.

² Assistant Professor, Faculty of History, University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, Iran.

10.22034/jatj.2026.567175.1075

Abstract

This article investigates the development of Andalusian sīra writing over seven centuries of intellectual activity. The scope of the study includes major figures of Andalusian sīra writing from ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ḥabīb to Ibn Sayyid al-Nās and their principal works. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of authoritative historical and sīra texts, such as al-Maghāzī by Ibn Ḥabīb, Jawāmiʿ al-Sīra by Ibn Ḥazm, Mukhtaṣar al-Sīra by Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-Shifāʾ by Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, and ʿUyūn al-Athar by Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, the study argues that Andalusian sīra writing evolved through three distinct phases.These phases include: (1) the historical–narrative and jurisprudential sīra of Ibn Ḥabīb in the third century AH; (2) the critical and ijtihād-based approach of Ibn Ḥazm alongside the Salafi–jurisprudential orientation of Ibn al-ʿArabī in the fifth century AH; and (3) the legal devotional sīra of Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ and the integrative approach of Ibn Sayyid al-Nās from the sixth to the eighth centuries AH. The shift from an emphasis on the narration of military expeditions (maghāzī) to a focus on the legal and devotional concept of the “rights of the Prophet” (ḥuqūq al-Muṣṭafā) was closely connected to broader political, legal, and theological transformations.

Keywords

Andalusi Sīra Writing, Maliki&ndash

Salafi Tradition, Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, al-Shifāʾ, Transformation of Islamic Religious Literature

Subjects