sira

Sira, also transliterated as Seerah or Sirah, refers to the life of the Prophet Muhammad in Islamic literature. The term designates biographical works that recount his birth, prophethood, revelation, mission in Mecca and Medina, and his legacy. Sira is distinct from the hadith collections, which compile reported sayings and actions. The earliest biographies appeared in the 7th and 8th centuries CE; Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah is among the most cited, though later editors such as Ibn Hisham revised and abridged it. Over time, various scholars expanded the genre, producing a diverse body of Seerah literature used for education, devotion, and historical inquiry.

The word Sira also appears in geographic and onomastic contexts. Place names and personal names derived from Sira are found in different regions, though such usage is uneven and may reflect cultural or linguistic factors rather than a direct link to the prophetic biography. In some languages, Seerah or Sira serves as a given name or a toponym without implying a specific religious meaning.

Etymology: The Arabic سِيرَة (sīra) means “biography,” “life story,” or “course of life,” and is the source of transliterations Seerah, Sirah, and Sira. The term captures the notion of a life narrative rather than a doctrinal text.

In modern scholarship, Seerah studies address historical context, transmission reliability, and the interaction of religious tradition with politics and society, while recognizing the devotional significance of these texts for Muslims and the varied scholarly judgments about historicity.