Wahb ibn Munabbih

Wahb ibn Munabbih ibn Kāmil ibn Sayj ibn Sayḥān , commonly known as Wahb ibn Munabbih, was a Yemeni traditionist, Muslim scholar, historian and judge of Persian descent, renowned for his ascetic lifestyle and for transmitting Judaeo-Christian traditions in early Islam. He is widely recognized for his contributions to isrā'īliyyāt and as one of the earliest collectors of prophetic Sīrah and pre-Islamic Arabian lore.

Biography

Early life and background Wahb was known by his kunya, Abū 'Abd Allāh. He was born in 34 AH / 654–655 CE in Dhamar, a town near Sanaa in Yemen. Of Persian origin, his father was a Companion of the Prophet, described as a Persian knight who had been expelled from Herat during the reign of Khosrow I . His mother was Himyarite. Wahb had four brothers: Hammām, Ghaylān, 'Aqīl, and Ma'qil.

Wahb also reportedly knew the ancient Himyaritic language. Al-Mas'ūdī recounts that the Umayyad caliph al-Walīd I (r. 705–715) once sent him an inscription discovered in Damascus to decipher.

Ḥadīth Dāwūd (حديث داود)

A historical work called Ḥadīt̲h̲ Dāwūd ('The History of David'). Currently, only a papyrus survives written in 229 AH / 843 CE in Heidelberg which is badly damaged by age and insects. It was first published by R.G. Khoury in 1972 along with a German translation. It was almost completely restored using a parallel version of the text in Kitāb Bad' al-Khalq wa Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyā ' by Umara ibn Wathima who made a copy of this work and also of others from a more or less original version by Wahb, transmitted by his grandson Idrīs b. Sinān, and by his son 'Abd al-Mun'im b. Idrīs . Although, only the second part is preserved, from Moses to the arrival of the Prophet of Islam.

Reception Although Muslims generally regarded him as a reliable authority in his accounts, some of them, such as Ibn Khaldun, declared that in his other writings he simply lied.