The short answer to when Prophet David lived is roughly between 1040 and 970 BC. These dates are calculated backward from the information in the Torah and from the year his son Prophet Solomon came to the throne. Prophet David was both a prophet and a king of the Children of Israel. According to the Quran, he was given the Zabur (the Psalms), kingship and wisdom.
Quick Summary
- By the traditional calculation, he was born around 1040 BC and died around 970 BC.
- According to the Torah, he became king at thirty, reigned for forty years and six months and died at seventy-one.
- The Quran tells that he killed Goliath, was given the Zabur and worked iron.
- He took Jerusalem and made it the center of the kingdom; the city was called “the City of David”.
- According to one interpretation, his son Prophet Solomon became king in 971 or 970 BC.
Contents
- When did Prophet David live?
- How are the dates calculated?
- His struggle with Goliath
- His kingship and Jerusalem
- Prophet David in the Quran
- The Zabur and his beautiful voice
- What do historians say?
- Frequently asked questions
When Did Prophet David Live?
Prophet David lived between the second half of the eleventh century BC and the first half of the tenth. The years most often given are around 1040 BC for his birth and around 970 BC for his death. His reign is placed at roughly 1010 to 970 BC. These years are not certain; they rest on calculations from the periods given in sacred texts.
According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the name David means “the most beloved person, the apple of the eye” in Hebrew. In the Bible this name is used only for Prophet David. According to the Torah, he was the son of Jesse, a leading man of the tribe of Judah who lived in Bethlehem.
The encyclopedia also underlines an important point. The Quran and the hadiths describe Prophet David’s qualities, but they give no detailed information about his lineage and life story. The details in other Islamic sources are largely of the isra’iliyyat type and resemble the information in the Torah.
How Are the Dates Calculated?
The first basis of the calculation is the information on periods in the Torah. As the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam relates, Prophet David became king at the age of thirty. He reigned for forty years and six months, seven and a half years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. He died at seventy-one and was buried in “the City of David” in Jerusalem.
The second basis is the date on which his son Prophet Solomon came to the throne. According to the encyclopedia, one interpretation holds that Solomon reigned jointly with his father between 967 and 965 BC and alone between 965 and 928. According to another, he became king in 971 or 970 BC, shortly before his father’s death, and remained on the throne until 931.
Combining these two pieces of information makes the picture clearer. If his death is taken as about 970 BC, a forty-year reign begins around 1010 BC. Since he became king at thirty, his birth falls around 1040 BC. Because of the differences between interpretations, it is natural to see deviations of a few years in the sources.
His Struggle with Goliath
In the Quran, Prophet David is first mentioned on the occasion of his killing Goliath (Jalut). According to the surah al-Baqarah, the soldiers of Saul (Talut) met Goliath’s army. The verse ends the account as follows: “So they routed them by Allah’s leave, and David slew Goliath” (al-Baqarah 2/251). Jalut is the Goliath of the Torah, and Talut is Saul, the first king of Israel.
According to Islamic sources, David was the youngest son, who stayed with the sheep while his brothers joined the army. When Goliath issued his challenge, no one dared to face him. David, however, set aside armor and weapons and took only his sling. The stone he threw struck Goliath between the eyebrows and killed him.
According to the Torah, Saul envied the people’s great love for David and wanted to kill him. David, though he had the chance, did not harm Saul. When Saul died in a battle, David became king in his place. The Quran also states that after the Goliath episode David was given kingship and wisdom.
His Kingship and Jerusalem
The most important step of Prophet David’s reign was the taking of Jerusalem. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the city had until then been in the hands of the Jebusites. When David became king over all Israel, he took the fortress of Zion and named it “the City of David”. He then made Jerusalem the center of the kingdom and had the Ark of the Covenant brought to the city.
Citing Ibn Kathir, the encyclopedia makes an important observation. In the history of the Children of Israel, prophethood and kingship were united for the first time in the person of Prophet David. According to the Bible, he organized worship, set up a standing army and heard cases in person. We discussed this branch of the prophetic line in our article on the prophets descended from Isaac.
The Quran also gives an example of his just rule. In the case of a flock that strayed into a field of crops at night and damaged it, Prophet David and Prophet Solomon gave judgment together (al-Anbiya 21/78). According to Islamic sources, David had found a solution, but he accepted his son’s proposal because it was more reasonable. For the story of Jerusalem in the centuries that followed, see our article on how Jerusalem passed out of Ottoman hands.
Prophet David in the Quran
The Quran states that God taught Prophet David to soften iron and make armor from it (al-Anbiya 21/80; Saba 34/10–11). According to tradition, he was the first person to make and wear armor. The Prophet Muhammad also said in a hadith: “The prophet of Allah David used to eat only from the work of his own hands” (Bukhari, “Buyu‘”, 15).
According to the verses, the mountains and the birds glorified God together with him morning and evening (al-Anbiya 21/79; Sad 38/18–19). The surah Sad states that David was made a vicegerent on earth and was commanded to judge with justice. The same surah also tells the story of the two litigants who came to him for judgment.
Prophet David’s worship is also held up as an example in the hadiths. The Prophet Muhammad said: “The prayer dearest to Allah is the prayer of David, and the fast dearest to Allah is the fast of David.” The fast of David means fasting one day and not fasting the next. In his night worship he would sleep half the night, pray for a third of it and sleep again for a sixth.
The Zabur and His Beautiful Voice
The Quran states that Prophet David was given the Zabur (an-Nisa 4/163; al-Isra 17/55). It does not, however, give detailed information about the book’s content. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, other Islamic sources relate that the Zabur was revealed in the month of Ramadan and contained words full of counsel and wisdom. It is also said that David usually recited it melodiously, accompanied by a musical instrument.
Prophet David’s voice was both very powerful and very beautiful. According to tradition, when he began to recite the Zabur, wild animals and birds would stop to listen and the mountains would echo with his voice. When the Prophet Muhammad heard the beautiful voice of his companion Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari, he said that he had been given one of the flutes of the family of David. The video below on the prophet’s life also touches on these qualities.
What Do Historians Say?
Most of the information about Prophet David rests on sacred texts. According to the entry “Süleyman” in the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, some researchers find much of the biblical information incompatible with historical reality. In their view, the archaeological evidence does not show the existence of a centralized empire in the region inhabited by the Philistines in the tenth century BC.
Those who hold the opposite view paint a different picture. According to the encyclopedia, the great states neighboring Israel were in decline between 1100 and 900 BC. The collapse of the Hittite Empire and Egypt’s withdrawal from Asia may have allowed a kingdom to rise in Palestine. The main criticism of this view is the absence of inscriptions from the period.
The most important clue outside the sacred texts is an Aramaic inscription found in 1993 at Tel Dan in northern Israel. It is accepted that the inscription, dated to the ninth century BC, contains the phrase “House of David”. This discovery shows that a dynasty named after David was known about a century after his death.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Prophet David live?
He lived roughly between 1040 and 970 BC. His reign began around 1010 BC and lasted until his death.
How many years did Prophet David live?
According to the Torah, he lived seventy-one years. He became king at thirty and reigned for forty years and six months.
To which people was Prophet David sent?
He was sent to the Children of Israel. He was both their prophet and their king; these two roles were united for the first time in his person.
When did Prophet David live, and when did his son Solomon become king?
Prophet David died around 970 BC. His son Prophet Solomon, according to one interpretation, came to the throne in 971 or 970 BC, shortly before his father’s death.
Conclusion
The answer to when Prophet David lived is roughly 1040–970 BC. These dates are calculated from the periods given in the Torah and from the years of Prophet Solomon’s reign. Prophet David went from being a young shepherd who defeated Goliath to a prophet-king who made Jerusalem his capital. The Quran highlights him through the Zabur, justice, worship and the work of his own hands.
Sources
- TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, entry “Dâvûd” (David)
- TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, entry “Süleyman” (Solomon)
- TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, entry “Kudüs” (Jerusalem)
- TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, entry “Zebûr” (Zabur)
- The Holy Quran, al-Baqarah 2/251; al-Anbiya 21/78–80; Saba 34/10–11; Sad 38/17–26.
