Baḥīrā was a monk featured in several "attestation stories" in sīra (biography) literature, that is, stories in which Muḥammad is recognised as a prophet before the actual beginning of his mission. According to the well known version of Ibn Isḥāq (d. 144/761-2?) and many later versions, this monk-whose name derives from the Syriac word bḥīrā , "tested (by God) and approved"-lived in Boṣrā, in southern Syria, and had learnt from a certain book that a new prophet was to appear. When Muḥammad travelled to Syria at a