In our previous two articles, we had discussed the date of the birth of the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, and demonstrated that there are over half a dozen opinions, the strongest being that he was born on the 8th of Rab?? al-Awwal, in the Year of the Elephant. We also mentioned that the first recorded instance of a public celebration of the mawlid occurred in Shi’ite Fatimid Egypt, around the turn of the sixth century of the hijra. In this article, we shall mention the earliest references in Sunni lands to the mawlid.