his History.

Our teacher Abū Muḥammad al-Dimyāṭī said in the Sīrah he composed, citing Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was born on Monday, ten nights having elapsed of Rabīʿ al-Awwal. The coming of the People of the Elephant had preceded that, occurring in the middle of Muḥarram.”

Abū Maʿshar Najīḥ stated: “He was born twelve nights into Rabīʿ al-Awwal.”

Al-Dimyāṭī commented, “The sound position is that of Abū Jaʿfar.” He added, “It is also said that he was born on the twentieth of Nīsān (April).”

Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥākim said: “He was born thirty days after the event of the Elephant—so some have reported. Others have said it was forty days afterward.”

I (the author) say: It is quite possible that those who spoke of thirty or forty ‘years’ simply erred here; it seems they meant to say ‘days’ but expressed it as ‘years.’

Al-Walīd ibn Muslim narrated—from Shuʿayb ibn Abī Ḥamzah, from ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās—that ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib circumcised the Prophet ﷺ on his seventh day, prepared a banquet for him, and named him Muḥammad.

This report is stronger than what Ibn Saʿd transmitted: “Yūnus ibn ʿAṭāʾ al-Makkī informed us, saying: al-Ḥakam ibn Abān al-ʿAdanī narrated to us, saying: ʿIkrimah narrated to us, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from his father al-ʿAbbās, who said: ‘The Prophet ﷺ was born already circumcised, with his umbilical cord severed (masrūr). This amazed ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, endeared him to him, and he said, “My son shall surely have great importance.” ’ ”

Sulaymān ibn Salamah al-Khubāʾirī followed Yūnus in narrating this, but inserted between Yūnus and al-Ḥakam the name ʿUthmān ibn Rabīʿah al-Ṣadaʾī.