ABSTRACT
With a people as given to storytelling as the Arabs it was a matter of course that the stirring events of the Prophet's life should become the subject of popular narrative very quickly. The tales would relate independent episodes to the listeners, and it is even possible that they combined single events into a cycle of narratives. Scholarly ardour also awoke early, and addressed the subject matter no later than six or seven decades after the Prophet's death. In the sfra every single piece of information becomes relevant only when it is fitted into the larger context. The formal similarity of the two kinds of literature appears most clearly in their use of the isniid, which appears well established in the oldest works of adfth literature as well as in the sfra. Finally, isnad in its literal meaning recalls the Jewish asmakhtii, which has a tradition "lean on" verse in the Bible in which intimation of this tradition is found.
