Kitab al-Ridda lil-Waqidi
- Author died
- 207 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī
Kitab al-Ridda (The Book of Apostasy Wars) is a historical monograph attributed to the early historian al-Waqidi (130–207 AH / 747–823 CE), recording the apostasy of the Arab tribes following the death of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the military campaigns conducted against them by the Companions .
Title and Historical Mentions
The work is first recorded in al-Fihrist by Ibn al-Nadim under the combined title Kitab al-Ridda wa-l-Dar, a pairing also adopted by Yaqut al-Hamawi and al-Safadi . Later scholars noted that these were likely two separate works erroneously joined, given that twenty-two years separated the Ridda wars (11–12 AH) from the siege of the house of Uthman ibn Affan (35 AH) . Other classical bibliographers and biographers—including Ibn Khayr al-Ishbili, Ibn Khallikan, al-Yafi'i, and Hajji Khalifa—refer to the text simply as Kitab al-Ridda . Ibn Khallikan stated that al-Waqidi documented the apostasy of the Arabs and the campaigns against figures such as Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid, al-Aswad al-Ansi, and Musaylima without falling short in his coverage .
Content and Method
As in his Kitab al-Maghazi, al-Waqidi focuses on minute historical details, transcribing official letters, speeches, dialogues, and military skirmishes, alongside explanations of the causes of key engagements . The book is especially distinguished by its extensive preservation of battlefield poetry, containing 903 verses distributed across 134 poems and poetic fragments (19 full qasidas, 115 shorter pieces, and 19 urjuzas in the rajaz meter) . The verses represent ten poetic meters, predominantly al-tawil (29 pieces), al-kamil (24), al-rajaz (19), and al-mutaqarib (17) . These poems are attributed to 66 known poets, 66 obscure poets, two women, and 22 anonymous contributors, frequently capturing extemporaneous war poetry declaimed by combatants .
Transmission and Reception
While several early monographs on the Ridda wars were compiled—including works by Ibn Ishaq, Sayf ibn Umar, and Wathima ibn Musa—al-Waqidi's text is the only complete monograph on the subject to survive in an independent manuscript . Passages and abridged reports from the work were transmitted and cited by later historians, including Ibn Sa'd in al-Tabaqat al-kubra, al-Tabari in his Tarikh, Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Hubaysh in al-Maghazi, and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani in al-Isaba .
Manuscript and Modern Edition
The existence of the manuscript was first noted in modern scholarship by Carl Brockelmann and Fuat Sezgin, identifying a unique copy preserved at the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library in Bankipore (Patna, India), under shelfmark 1042 (15/1042) . The manuscript consists of 46 folios written in unvoweled naskh script and is dated to 1278 AH . Its chain of transmission opens with Abu al-Qasim Abd Allah ibn Hafs ibn Mihran al-Barda'i on the authority of Ahmad ibn A'tham al-Kufi, and the historical account concludes on folio 41b . A critical edition of the text based on this manuscript was prepared by Yahya Wahib al-Juburi and completed in 1410 AH / 1990 CE .
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