The first juzʼ or volume of the larger history of the Prophet Muḥammad and the several classes of his companions, their successors, and traditionists by Abū Muḥammad b. Sa‘d, who was secretary to the celebrated Al-Wāqidī, and was himself one of the earliest and most eminent historians. He died at Baghdad, at the age of 62, 230 A.H. (844 C.E.), when the work was still unfinished, but it was continued and brought down to 238 A.H. (852 C.E.) by his disciple, Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad b. Fahm al-Baghdādī (d. 289 A.H., 901 C.E.).

The present volume contains a detailed life-history of the Prophet (fols. 1b -352), followed by notices of al-Aṣḥab, al-Muhājirūn, and al-Anṣār (the early generations of the Muslim community).

Like all of the extant copies, this text belongs also to the recension of Abī ‘Umar Muḥammad b. al-‘Abbās b. Muḥammad b. Zakariyyā b. Yaḥyá b. Mu‘ād Ibn Hayyuyah al-Khazzāz (d. 382 A.H., 992 C.E.), who gave the present division to the work, and himself was a traditionist of great renown.

This manuscript was copied from a manuscript which was transcribed at al-Nāṣiriyyah College at Cairo (by Aḥmad b. Aḥmad b. al-Ḥusayn al-Ḥakārī, 718 A.H., 1318 C.E.).