Muhammad b. 'Umar el-Wâqidî's hadithics and an examination of the hadithes in Kitâb al-Maġâzî

One may claim that Hadith scholars and early Islamic historians had somewhat rigorous competitions in recording life, mission, and events of the Last Prophet (s.a.w.), but this claim may not withstand scrutiny. One must, however, say that it is more a matter of preserving the Islamic heritage from different aspects of professionalism. The only significant difference between Hadith scholars and Islamic Historians is that the former developed strict criteria to accept, record, and pass on information and the latter were lenient in accepting, recording, and passing on information. This situation does in no way warrant to refer to it as that of conflict, competition, and rivalry. It is rather interesting to note that Hadith scholars produced works not only in Hadith but also in Islamic history, and so is the case with Islamic historians who wrote not only books on history but also on Hadith. For example, Ibn S hihâb ez-Zuhrî (d.124 / 742), one of the most prominent hadith scholars from the generations of tabiîn, who is credited to have systematically carried out the hadith-recording task for the first time, wrote a work on history called al-Magâzî. The methods he used in his work deeply influenced many scholars who came after him, and as a result of his work, many scholars who had a say in both fields emerged. Muhammad b. 'Umar al-Waqidî (d. 207/823) is another wellknown scholar who wrote nearly thirty works in hadith, history, and many other fields, but only a few of them have survived. One of his most important works that reached today and brought fame to Wâqidî is his work entitled "Kitâb al-Magâzî" which forms the basis of this thesis. Wâqidî presented in his work the information in chronological order. This work of history is full of Hadith texts and reports. He had a wide expertise in Hadith, besides having a reliable scholarship in the Islamic history. He applied nine different narration methods in recording hadith reports, which have been taken care of in the present work. Keywords: Wâqidî, Magâzî, Kitâb al-Mağâzî, Hadith, Method, Narration, History