Author
Sean W. Anthony is Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Ohio State University and the author of numerous books and articles on Late Antiquity and the early Islamic world.
Presentation
In Muhammad and the Empires of Faith, Sean W. Anthony demonstrates how reading non-Muslim and Muslim sources in tandem with a critical eye can breathe new life into the historical study of Muhammad and the world that his message transformed. By placing these sources within the intellectual and cultural world of Late Antiquity, Anthony offers a fresh assessment of the earliest sources for Muhammad’s life, taking readers on a grand tour of the available evidence, and suggests what new insights stand to be gained from the techniques and methods pioneered by countless scholars over the decades in a variety of fields. Muhammad and the Empires of Faith offers both an authoritative introduction to the multilayered traditions surrounding the life of Muhammad and a compelling exploration of how these traditions interacted with the broader landscape of Late Antiquity.
Contents
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
The Caliphs, 632–809
Introduction: The Making of the Historical Muhammad
PART I. BEFORE THE SIRAH-MAGHAZI LITERATURE
1. The Earliest Evidence
Three Early Non-Muslim Testimonies to Muhammad
Revisiting the Doctrina Iacobi
The “Keys to Paradise” in Late Antique Religious Discourse
The “Keys to Paradise” in Early Islamic Preaching
The Doctrina Iacobi and the Historical Muhammad
2. Muhammad the Merchant
The Earliest Depictions of Muhammad as a Merchant
Muhammad’s Occupation in the Hadith and Sirah-Maghazi Literature
Muhammad as a Trader in Arabic Sources
Muhammad and the Monk
The Merchants of Mecca
PART II. THE BEGINNINGS OF HTE SIRAH-MAGHAZI LITERATURE
3. The Beginnings of the Corpus
The Umayyads and the Beginnings of the Sirah-Maghazi Tradition
?Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan and ?Urwah ibn al-Zubayr
4. The Letters of ?Urwah ibn al-Zubayr
The Chains of Transmission for ?Urwah’s Letters
A Translation of the Letters Attributed to ?Urwah ibn al-Zubayr
Letter 1. From the Persecutions in Mecca to the Hijrah to Yathrib
Letter 2. Khadijah’s death and the Prophet’s marriage to ?A?ishah
Letter 3. The Battle of Badr
Letter 4. On al-Hudaybiyah, a Gloss on Q. Mumtahinah 60:10–12
Letter 5. The Conquest of Mecca and al-Ta?if
Letter 6. On the Hums
Letter 7. ?A?ishah’s Accusers
Letter 8. On Khuwaylah, the wife of Aws ibn al-Samit, a Gloss on
Q. Mujadalah 58:1–4
Letter 9. On the Prophet’s Marriage to a Sister of al-Ash?ath ibn Qays
5. The Court Impulse
Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri and the Umayyads 132
The Corpus of Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri 140
Ibn Ish.aq and the Abbasids 150
The Corpus of Ibn Ish.aq 158
PART III. LOCATING THE SIRAH-MAGHAZI LITERATURE IN LATE ANTIQUITY
6. Prophecy and Empires of Faith
Prophecy and the Rhetoric of Empire
The Vision of Heraclius
Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri’s Christian Source
Translatio Imperii in the Early Sirah-Maghazi Literature
7. Muhammad and Cædmon
Cædmon’s Call and The Iqra? Narrative
From Muhammad’s Call to Cædmon’s Call
Mechanisms of Narrative Influence
The Iqra? Narrative—Early, but not Historical
Excursus: Alternative Accounts of Muhammad’s First Revelation
Epilogue: The Future of the Historical Muhammad
Bibliography
Index