Israʼiliyyat (in Arabic: إسرائیلیات "Israelisms") is a sub-genre of tafsīr and Ḥadīth which supplements Quranic narratives.
The first known use of the term Isra'iliyyat is in a writing of the 10th-century historian and geographer al-Masudi (d. 345/946), in his Murūğ al-ḏahab, as he discusses traditions concerning the creation of the horse.
[14]The next known usage is in the writings of Ibn al-Murağğā, in a text written around 430/1040, also in the context of narratives sourced from Wahb.
[15] Whether Wahb composed a document by such a name is disputed (others instead attribute a similar text to Hammad ibn Salama (d. 783)[16]).
[21] The strong criticism of this literature is a modern phenomenon and stands in contrast to the intensive use of these texts in pre-modern times.
[23] There is no clear evidence regarding the exact manner by which Biblical, Talmudic, or other religious themes might have entered Islamic literature.
Biblical events and exegetical commentaries of Jewish origin may also have entered Islamic tradition via educated Christians of Eastern churches such as those of Abyssinia and/or through various local populations of Jews in the Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula.