1856.] Alfred von Kremer's edition of Wakidy. 61 



e;2ta ^yo c^J^I o^ which means generally, " I have taken tradi- 

 tions on his authority." Or they were also provided with copies and 

 compared them with what he read. It is, however, impossible to 

 say how many of these twenty-four Shaykhs lectured on systematic 

 works on the biography of the prophet, and how many taught 

 Masnads and Mocannafs, i. e. miscellaneous collections of traditions. 

 I hope in a future article to be able to give a somewhat fuller 

 account on the authorities regarding the biography of Mohammad 

 which were extant at the time of Wakidy and of some of the Shaykhs 

 of this writer, than at present, and I therefore refrain from entering 

 here on this subject. 



Now I come at length to the text of Wakidy. He begins with a 

 list of all the campaigns and assassinations in which Mohammad 

 was the leader, or which were undertaken by his orders. This list 

 is followed by detailed accounts of each, but in the detailed accounts 

 very little notice is taken of the expedition of JZamzah, which took 

 place in March 623, that of 'Obaydah which took place in April of 

 the game year, that of Sa'd b. Aby Waqqac, May, 623, that of 

 Mohammad to Abwa, in August, that to Bowa£ in September and 

 the pursuit of Kurz. This omission is not due to Wakidy but 

 to one of the rawies — probably Jawhary. At the time of 

 Tabary, other more complete texts were extant, but he does un- 

 fortunately not say by whom. Every Aadyth was originally con- 

 sidered as a whole in itself. Consequently early rawies (persons 

 who transmitted a book or Aadyth) did not think it admissible 

 to alter a ^adyth or to omit part of it. But from a collection of 

 jffadythes, they considered it allowable to omit as many as they 

 pleased without incurring any censure, and they might insert new 

 ones, faithfully quoting their authorities. Again, where the author 

 of the collection states his view on the subject, the Eawiy might 

 suppress it and give his own. This liberty has not only been taken 

 with Wakidy but to a very great extent with the Muaztfa, and to 

 some extent even with Bokhary, where the fullest and the most 

 defective riwayat (editions) vary in the number of ^adythes by more 

 than two hundred. Fortunately this habit came early out of fashion, 

 but not sufficiently early to preserve for us the text of Wakidy in its 

 integrity. 



