Analyzing the representations about the Prophet Muhammad's pre-prophecy life in Bayhaqî's Dalâil al-Nubuwwa

The works in the genre of Dalâil were written to prove the evidence of the Prophet's prophethood. The expansion of the Islamic geography in a short period of time as a result of the conquest movements, the encounter of Muslims with many different religious and ethnic groups, and the prophetic debates with the members of other religions made the Prophet feel that the evidence of the Prophet's prophethood should be written in the most detailed way. In such an environment, the necessity of proving prophethood arose and books such as Dalāil were created. However, the narrations about some events before, during and after the Prophet's birth were collected without any historical criticism. When the siyar books describing the life of the Prophet are examined, it is seen that there is little content about the pre-prophetic period. The lack of sufficient information creates a gap regarding this period. However, when Dalāil style works are examined, the presence of many narrations about the pre-prophetic period is at the forefront. Moreover, almost all of these narrations are presented as evidence that Prophet Muhammad would become a prophet in the future. In such a situation, it is extremely necessary to examine, analyze, and compare these narrations. The subject of this thesis is to compare and contrast the narrations about the Prophet's life before the Prophethood in al-Bayhaqī's Dalāil al-Nubuwwa in terms of the methodology of senet, text and history. Bayhaqī's Dalāil al-Nubuwwa is a work that has revealed many aspects of the Prophet's prophethood. In this study, the narrations about the life of the Messenger of Allah before his prophethood are discussed, and the narrations in the first period Islamic history sources, siyar and megāzī books, and Dalāil-Hasāis style works are analyzed and evaluated comparatively. This research is also important in terms of analyzing and evaluating al-Bayhaqī's Dalāil from the perspective of a historian. As a result of the researches, it has been concluded that al-Bayhaqī's Dalāil is a voluminous and distinguished work on the proof of the Prophet's prophethood and it has been determined how important the analysis of the narrations in this work is for the correct understanding of the Prophet's life before the prophethood. Key Words: Beyhakî, Dalâil, Dalâil al-Nubuwwa, Prophet, Prophethood, Before Prophethood