[1] He lived in Medina at the time of Abu Hanifa and Ja'far al-Sadiq and studied in Al-Masjid an-Nabawi as a student of Malik ibn Anas.
Al-Waqidi originally earned a living as a wheat trader, but when a calamity struck at the age of 50, he migrated to Iraq during the reign of Harun ar-Rashid.
[1] His books on the early Islamic expeditions and conquests predate much of the Sunni and Shia literature of the later Abbasid period.
[1] His works regarding the battles of Muhammad and his companions were considered reliable by most early Islamic scholars.
[5] While still regarded as an important source for early Islamic history, later authors debated the reliability of his works.
[6] Al-Waqidi is primarily known for his Kitab al-Tarikh wa al-Maghazi (Arabic: كتاب التاريخ والمغازي, "Book of History and Campaigns"), which is the only part of his corpus that has been fully preserved.
[27] Waqidi will always give precise dates, locations, names, where Ibn Ishaq has none, accounts of what triggered the expedition, miscellaneous information to lend color to the event ...
[27][28]Historian Michael Cook gives an example of the difference in accounts of the death of Muhammad's father Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib.