Allama Shibli Nomani was a respected scholar of Islam from Indian subcontinent during British Raj. He was born at Bindwal in Azamgarh district of present-day Uttar Pradesh. He is known for the founding of Shibli National College in 1883 and the Darul Mussanifin in Azamgarh.

Shibli was a versatile scholar in Arabic, Persian, Hindi, Turkish and Urdu. He was also a poet. He collected much material on the life of Prophet of Islam, Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) but could write only first two volumes of the planned work the Sirat-un-Nabi.

His disciple, Syed Sulaiman Nadvi, made use of this material and added his own and wrote remaining five volumes of the work, the Sirat-un-Nabi after the death of his mentor.