Reports on the Fadak Conflict in Ibn al-Sa'd's al-Tabaghat al-Kobra: A Review and Critique

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of History and Civilization of Islamic Nations, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

2 Master's Graduate in Shiite History, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, Department of History and Civilization of Islamic Nations, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

The reports of Fadak incident as one of the main Shiite-Sunni conflicts in the earlier historical sources are very contradictory and have many differences. Ibn Sa'd, as a supporter of Abu Bakr and the school of caliphs, tried to show in the book al-Tabaghat al-Kobra that no expropriation was made about Fadak and that Abu Bakr and the first caliphs followed exactly the Prophet's (S) tradition. In his opinion, despite the request of Fatima (AS), the Prophet (S) did not give Fadak to her as a gift and her claim to own it through inheritance did not go anywhere due to a hadith narrated by Abu Bakr. After comparing the narrations of Ibn Sa'd with the reports of historians of the same time and later eras, the present article found some narrations that apparently were not intentionally mentioned in al-Tabaghat al-Kobra. The sum of these reports led us to the conclusion that Ibn Sa'd, in order to defend the legitimacy of the Caliphate of Abu Bakr and to show the obedience of Abu Bakr and his followers to the Prophet's tradition, sought to deny and conceal some historical facts related to this incident and to portray it as he wished.

Keywords

References

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Shi`a Pajoohi
Volume 8, Issue 22
August 2022
Pages 85-112

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