The story of Muhammad is extremely fascinating, and leaves us wondering where the boundaries exist between reality and myth. All of the world's great religions have this trait in common, without exception. But Muhammad's life has a whiff of the fabulist about it that reminds us of the great literary traditions of Islam, more especially of the style of the tales in the Arabian Nights. Everything about Muhammad, from his birth to his death, displays an aura of inevitability and dramatic tension. Muhammad does not simply receive instructions from Allah in a dream state—he goes up to Paradise in spirit form and speaks to Him and to His angels—and then returns to earth to write down the instructions. Muhammad does not merely send out invitations in all directions to become a Muslim—he severely punishes those who reject that invitation. When Muhammad makes conquests, he distributes the booty among his followers equally, whether goods, land, or slaves—while keeping one fifth for himself. And when Muhammad displays his mercy, he does so in the most dramatic fashion—he allows his captives to go free instead of enslaving or beheading them...or sometimes not.

The author, Ibn Ishaq, was born in 704 in Medina and died in Baghdad in 767. His grandfather was enslaved as a boy and may have been either Jewish or Christian before converting to Islam. Ibn Ishaq carried on a family tradition of writing or transmitting information about the Prophet. He traveled widely from Alexandria to Iran, finally settling in Baghdad. Here, he was commissioned by the Caliph al Mansur to write an extremely long history of the world beginning with the creation, a part of which also contained the celebrated biography of Muhammad, of which the present work is composed. It was translated by Edward Rehatsek and published in 1898, a year after his death. His Life of Muhammad is written in four parts: 1) - The Early Life of the Apostle of Allah; 2) - The Revelation; 3) - The Hijra; 4) - The Conquest of Mecca.