The origin of circumcision in Islam is a matter of religious and scholarly debate. It is mentioned in some "hadith" and the "sunnah", but it's not found anywhere in the Quran. In the time of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, both male and female circumcision were carried out by Pagan Arabian tribes, and male circumcision by the Jewish tribes of Arabia for religious reasons. This has also been attested by the Muslim scholar al-Jahiz, as well as by the Roman Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.