His family was of Himyarite origin and belonged to Banu Ma‘afir tribe of Yemen.
[1][5] As-Sīrah an-Nabawiyyah (السيرة النبوية), 'The Life of the Prophet'; is an edited recension of Ibn Isḥāq's classic Sīratu Rasūli l-Lāh (سيرة رسول الله) 'The Life of God's Messenger'.
Accordingly, Ibn Hishām omits stories from Al-Sīrah that contain no mention of Muḥammad,[12] certain poems, traditions whose accuracy Ziyād al-Baqqāʾi [Notes 1] could not confirm, and offensive passages that could offend the reader.
[15][16] Ibn Hishām gives more accurate versions of the poems he includes and supplies explanations of difficult terms and phrases of the Arabic language, additions of genealogical content to certain proper names, and brief descriptions of the places mentioned in Al-Sīrah.
[12] This treatment of Ibn Ishāq's work was circulated to scholars in Cordoba in Islamic Spain by around 864.
The first printed edition was published in Arabic by the German orientalist Ferdinand Wüstenfeld, in Göttingen (1858-1860).