The legend of ‘abd allah ibn ‘abd al-muttalib

The article is deals with analysis of the legend containing information about ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib, included in the text of the «The Life of the Prophet» by Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham. Due to the absence of «reliable» chains of transmissions that preceding this information, it has to be to considered not as a historical source, but as a literary legend. This work allowed us to identify the connection in plot and ideas between the Quranic story of the sacrifice of Ibrahim and the analyzed legend. Based on the data obtained by comparing the details of the two legends, three groups of reasons of the discrepancies between them were identified. A conclusion is made about the functional purpose of the legend of Abd Allah ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib in the text of the «The Life of the Prophet». Both stories are based on an attempted sacrifice of a son, ending up with a «substitution sacrifice». Based on the data obtained from comparison of details of the two legends, three groups of reasons for discrepancy between them were singled out. The first groups unites the core historical aspects of the legend of ‘Abd Allah that could not be omitted or changed by the authors of the The Life of the Prophet. Existence of the second group is due to the prophetic status of Ibrahim and Ismail, while the pagans ‘Abd al-Muttalib and ‘Abd Allah do not possess it. The third group includes traces of external influences that might have effected creation of the literary version of life of ‘Abd Allah. For instance, mentioning «the light of ‘Abd Allah» and Amina ibn Vahb’s miraculous vision has no direct similarities in the Abrahamic traditions. In the author’s opinion, search for these similarity allows us to assume that the legend could have been influenced by the Zoroastrian tradition.