life of Muḥammad according to ibn-Hishâm is made use of by al-Balâdhuri in the first chapters of his Futûḥ is made evident by a comparison of the chapters on the banu-an-Naḍîr, Khaibar and Tabûk.[1] Al-Balâdhuri makes no mention of ibn-Hishâm but quotes ibn-Isḥâḳ eleven times. The isnâd in Balâdhuri being longer, it might be conjectured that he did not get his material at first hand from ibn-Isḥâḳ's work but through subsequent reporters. Al-Madâ’ini lived from 135–215 (753–830). He wrote a "history of the caliphs" and a book of "campaigns", both of which are lost and are known only by excerpts through al-Balâdhuri, aṭ-Ṭabari and Yâḳût. Of these, al-Balâdhuri alone has over forty citations from him.
Al-Wâḳidi (d. 207/823) wrote 28 books recorded in al-Fihrist,[2] only a few of which have come down to us. Having lived at Baghdâd his works were certainly accessible to al-Balâdhuri, who quotes him on 80 different occasions and more than any other source. Most of the quotations are made through ibn-Sa‘d, the secretary of al-Wâḳidi, and one of al-Balâdhuri's teachers. A comparison between the campaigns against banu-an-Naḍîr[3] and banu-Ḳuraiẓah[4] in al-Balâdhuri, and the corresponding ones in al-Wâḳidi's Kitâb al-Maghâzi,[5] shows many points of contact but no absolute interdependence.
Ibn-Sa‘d (d. 230) being the disciple of al-Wâḳidi and the professor al-Balâdhuri acted as a connecting link between the two. In his Futûḥ, al-Balâdhuri has 48 citations from him, many of which were communicated by word of mouth and were recorded verbatim by al-Balâdhuri. In his book
