To know the life of Muhammad, the historian has ancient sources: it is first of all the

Sirât Rasûl Allâh, where Ibn Ishâq gathered the oral biographical traditions and of which we have a version

of the ninth century.

From the same period have come down to us the chronicle of the Campaigns of the Prophet by Wâqidi, and the collection

Hadith by Bukhari. These sources, and some others, Martin Lings knows them perfectly and he draws from them,

to give us this Life of the Prophet, with a fine talent for storytelling. The wealth of detail often

unpublished makes this biography a monument of erudition accessible to the greatest number.