THE EARLY PERIOD of Islamic history, dating from the appearance of the Prophet in the second decade of the seventh century to the establishment and dynastic consolidation of Arab-Islamic rule, is of paramount significance. Its importance for Islamic cult ure is also reflected in numerical proportions in al-Ṭabarī's Annals, completed in AD 915, which cover Biblical history, the ancient history of Persia, and the first three centuries of Islamic history in about 7800 pages. A third of this work is devoted to the eight decades which cover the mission of the Prophet, the conquests, and the first fundamental conflicts within the Muslim community. Early Islamic history is dealt with in several fields of Arabic literature: Prophetic tradition (ḥadīth), which contains countless reports about sayings and deeds of Muḥtammad; Qur'ānic commentaries ( tafsīr), where the revelation is related to the life of the Prophet; historiography, and finally adab literature, which displays the ideal of refinement and unites entertaining and didactic tendencies.

Historiographical literature about early Islamic times is divided mainly according to historical periods. Material on the life of the Prophet ( sīra), the military campaigns directed by the Prophet or his Companions ( maghāzī), and the conquests (futūḥ), as well as particular cases ( waq'a, maqtal) are kept distinct, although not entirely separate. Biographically organized works ( ṭabaqāt) and collections of ḥadīth may include all of these materials. Narratives about the pre-Islamic battledays ( ayyām al- ‘arab) are often considered to be the predecessors of and model for Arabic historiographical narration; this seems questionable, however, since the extant textual evidence cannot claim an origin prior to other branches of literature about early Islamic times.

The historiographical and biographical compilations, works on poets and poetry, and those which treat linguistic matters, are to a great extent compilations of short texts. These include simple statements, utterances of authoritative scholars, saints, or statesmen, reports of events, and- sometimes rather complex-stories about historical events and personalities. These texts, which may vary in length from one line to several pages are designated by the term khabar (pl. akhbār).

Historiographical tradition also contains speeches and such documents as treaties or letters, as well as chronological and onomastical data. Materials of this kind may appear as traditions independent from akhbiir narration and will be excluded from our analysis here. Further investigation is needed to elucidate whether they are more ent itled to claim historicity than akhbār, and less affected by distortion in transmission.