The History of al-Tabari

11

The birth of Muhammad ﷺ

مولد النبي ﷺ

Year of the Elephant · 570 CE, as the historians tally

Tabari gathers the signs around the birth: Aminah’s pregnancy, the light, the opening of the chest as a child, the hilf of the fudul, the rebuilding of the Kabah and the placing of the Black Stone. The opening of the chest is also in Muslim. The Black Stone story is in the sirah with a famous isnad through Ibn Ishaq.

The Prophet ﷺ said: I am the answer of Ibrahim, and the good news of Isa, and the dream of my mother, who saw a light come out of her that lit the palaces of Sham.

Ahmad and others — hasan as a cluster; Tabari carries the mother’s dream in the Tarikh

When Quraysh rebuilt the Kabah they disputed who would lift the Black Stone. They accepted the first man to enter. It was Muhammad ﷺ. He placed it in a cloak; every clan lifted a corner; he set it with his hands.

Ibn Ishaq in the Tarikh

Sirah, widely received. Not a Bukhari number. The character it shows is the same man the sahih later names al-Amin.

How to weigh this

Birth-miracles that only the qisas books know should stay soft. The light of Aminah has a backbone in the musnads. The talking of stones is a later colour.