Genealogical
roots and early life
Both before the rise of Islam and
during the Islamic period, Arab tribes paid great attention to genealogy and guarded their knowledge of it with
meticulous care. In fact, during Islamic history a whole science of genealogy (ʿilm
al-anṣāb) developed that is of much
historical significance. In the pre-Islamic period, however, this knowledge
remained unwritten, and for that very reason it has not been taken seriously by
Western historians relying only on written records. For Muslims, however, the
genealogy of Muhammad has always been certain. They trace his ancestry to Ismāʿīl
(Ishmael) and hence to the prophet Abraham. This fact was accepted even by
medieval European opponents of Islam but has been questioned by modern
historians.
