URWA BIN ZUBAIR’S “AL-MAGHAZI”: ITS METHODOLOGY AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Urwa Bin Zubair, was a prominent Hadith Scholar as well as a learned Jurist of his age. He was one of the first and foremost biographers of the life of the Holy Prophet (SAW) and Ghazawat. It is too much regrettable that his writings about the life of the Holy Prophet (SAW) and the Ghazawat could not remain intact with the passage of time and a considerable portion of the same has been lost. However, some valuable extracts of his writings have been quoted by several distinguished scholars and historians, like Muhammad Bin Ishaque, Al-Waqidi, Al-Tabri and, especially, ‘Ibn-e- Kathir’ in their books. These dispersed extracts of his writings very distinctly reveal the Biographical Methodology adopted by him in writing the Biography of the Holy Prophet (SAW).