To introduce the primary types of sources, key works, and authors utilized in classical Islamic historical research; to examine the formation, transmission, and application of sources—ranging from *sirah* (biographical) and *maghazi* (military campaign) accounts to general histories, *futu?* (accounts of early Islamic conquests), *?abaqat* (biographical dictionaries), *ansab* (genealogies), geographical and urban histories, *?adith*, *tafsir* (exegesis), and administrative-financial literature. Furthermore, to enable students to evaluate issues such as the dating of sources, the networks of authors and narrators, intertextual relationships, internal and external criticism, and the challenges surrounding the selection and representation of information; and to equip them to draw well-founded historical inferences by comparing diverse sources concerning the same historical subject.

The distinction between primary and secondary sources; the types and historical value of classical Islamic historical sources; early historical memory, oral and written traditions, *?a?ifa*s (early manuscripts/scrolls) and *risala*s (treatises); the use of the Quran, *?adith*, poetry, and various documents in early historical research; the formation of *sira* (biographical) and *maghazi* (military campaign) literature, including the roles of early authors and the processes of *tadwin* (compilation), *ta?nif* (classification), *ta?lif* (composition), and *naql* (transmission); case studies of Ibn Is?aq, Musa b. ?Uqba, Ma?mar b. Rashid, al-Waqidi, Ibn Hisham, and Ibn Sa?d; *isnad* (chain of transmission) and textual criticism, variants in accounts, and narrative patterns; chronicles and general historical works; sources concerning *futu?* (early Islamic conquests), *ansab* (genealogy), *?abaqat* (biographical strata), and *tarajim* (biographical dictionaries); sources related to geography, urban history, travelogues, law, and public finance; epigraphic, numismatic, and papyrological evidence, as well as archaeological data; the comparative analysis of sources and practical applications of source criticism.