کتبِ مغازی بطور مستقل فنِ علم:آغاز، مناہج اور اہمیت کا تجزیاتی مطالعہ

Kutub al-Maghazi as an Independent Discipline: An Analytical Study of Its Origin, Methodologies and Significance

Abstract

This research article presents an analytical study that establishes Kutub al-Maghāzī (Books of Military Expeditions) as an independent discipline within Islamic scholarship, examining its origins, evolution, methodologies, and scholarly significance. Lexically, maghāzī refers to military campaigns; technically, it denotes works that systematically document the prophetic military expeditions (ghazawāt and sarāyā), treaties, and key events of the Prophetic era in historical order. The study demonstrates that this discipline was recognized as a distinct field of knowledge as early as the first century of the Hijra, with its formative development beginning during the age of the Companions. By the third century AH, it had matured into a fully developed scholarly tradition, characterized by established methodologies, chains of transmission (asānīd), and critical standards. A comparative analysis of the methodologies of prominent figures—such as al-Wāqidī, Ibn Isḥāq, Ibn Saʿd, and Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah—is presented, alongside an exploration of the discipline’s relationship to and distinction from ḥadīth studies and historiography. Through this integrated approach, the article highlights how maghāzī literature serves as a crucial bridge between prophetic tradition, early Islamic history, and the development of historical criticism.