The Emergence of Islam, As It Biographical Information on Muhammad Or Is Usually Told, Is Rather Straightforward

7KH(PHUJHQFHRI,VODP 5H\QROGV*DEULHO6DLG 3XEOLVKHGE\$XJVEXUJ)RUWUHVV3XEOLVKHUV 5H\QROGV*DEULHO6DLG 7KH(PHUJHQFHRI,VODP&ODVVLFDO7UDGLWLRQVLQ&RQWHPSRUDU\3HUVSHFWLYH $XJVEXUJ)RUWUHVV3XEOLVKHUV 3URMHFW086( :HE0DUKWWSPXVHMKXHGX For additional information about this book http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9781451408126 Access provided by Yale University Library (15 May 2015 22:10 GMT) PREFACE The story of the emergence of Islam, as it biographical information on Muhammad or is usually told, is rather straightforward. his companions. Other Islamic sources, such Muhammad was born in Mecca, a pagan as quraanic commentaries or biographies of city in western Arabia in 570 CE. At the age the Prophet, often seem to be based on the of forty, he began to proclaim revelations Quraan (and not records of an independent from the one true God, the God of Abraham, process of oral transmission). Non-Islamic Moses, and Jesus. Because most of the Meccan sources from the time of Islam’s emergence pagans refused his message, Muhammad trav- are curiously silent. They simply make no eled to Medina, a city to the north of Mecca, mention of a prophet in Mecca. in 622. There he won the fidelity of theA rabs, In light of these complications, scholars overcame Jewish tribes who resisted him, and today have an important choice to make when eventually attacked and overcame the forces they set out to describe Islam’s origins. They of the pagan Meccans. When Muhammad might choose simply to follow the traditional died in 632, he had established a small state Islamic biographies of Muhammad, selecting based on Islam, the religion given to him by those portions of the biography they consider God. His successors, the caliphs, launched most reliable and adding their own commen- a great campaign of conquests and carried tary. This is the approach, for example, of Islam throughout the Middle East and across Karen Armstrong in her work Muhammad: North Africa. A Prophet of Our Time (2006). Armstrong The question of how much of this story is emphasizes those elements of the traditional historically accurate, however, is less straight- biography that might make the Muslim forward. Our sources for the study of Islam’s prophet appealing to a modern Western audi- emergence are unlike those for the study ence. It is also the approach of Robert Spencer of Judaism or Christianity, and they pre- in his work The Truth About Muhammad sent scholars with particular difficulties. The (2006). Spencer, however, emphasizes those Quraan is an ancient text, and it certainly elements of the traditional biography that contains authentic material from the time of might make him unappealing to a modern Islamic origins, but it offers almost no explicit Western audience. Scholars might also cast ix x v Preface aside the traditional Islamic biographies and of Islam’s rise, from the birth of Muhammad present new scenarios for the rise of Islam. to the death of his cousin and son-in-law, uAli This is the approach of The Hidden Origins of (according to the traditional dates, 570–661 Islam (2010), a collection of articles in which CE); this introduction is divided according to a number of authors argue that the quraanic the life of Muhammad in Mecca (570–610 CE; word muhammad (which in Arabic means chapter 1), the life of Muhammad in Medina “the praised one”) is not the name of a new (610–632 CE; chapter 2), and the career of the prophet but an adjective referring to Jesus. first four caliphs (632–661 CE, chapter 3). In The Muhammad of Islamic tradition, in their the course of this presentation, however, I estimation, never existed. discuss how and why pious Muslim schol- Francis Peters takes a different approach. In ars wrote the story of Islam in this manner. Muhammad and the Origins of Islam (1994), Whenever possible, I indicate which elements Peters first acknowledges how little can be reli- of the traditional account of Islam’s origins ably known about Islam’s origins: “However are plausible and which are less so. At the long the search has gone on, the ‘quest of the same time, this section of the book is meant historical Muhammad’ is still surrounded by to offer readers an appreciation of the Islamic enormous difficulties from both the growth understanding of Muhammad and his pious and encrustations of centuries of pious regard successors. and the difficulty of the source material” (xii). In part 2, I provide a critical scholarly per- Yet Peters decides to postpone any discussion spective on the rise of Islam through a pre- of these difficulties. In the body of the book, sentation of the Quraan, our most ancient he proceeds “as if” the traditional story were source for Islam’s emergence. I first offer historically reliable: “This is an issue that must the reader a general presentation of the be addressed, but it is highly technical, and Quraan’s religious message, and the strate- rather than put such daunting stuff between gies the Quraan uses to convince the reader the reader and the subject of this book, I have of that message (chapter 4). Then I illustrate placed [it] in an appendix” (xii). Thus in the the Quraan’s close relationship with biblical body of his book, Peters provides the reader literature and biblical traditions (chapter with a thoroughly classical account of Islam’s 5). This illustration—which suggests that origins, an account that he judges to be funda- the Quraan was preached in a context where mentally unreliable. Jewish and (especially) Christian traditions were well known—leads to a reconsideration of the traditional biography of Muhammad Approach of this Book (chapter 6). Finally, I ask what the Quraan itself might teach us of the story of Islam’s The approach of the present work is differ- origins (chapter 7). By this point we will have ent. In part 1, I present the traditional story done things in a manner perfectly contrary Preface v xi to the manner in which they are usually English word God when referring to the God done. Whereas most scholars see the Quraan of Islam. through the lens of the traditional history Biblical citations are from the New of Islam’s emergence, we will see the history Jerusalem Bible. Quraanic translations are of Islam’s emergence through the lens of the generally those of Arthur Arberry, although Quraan. I have altered his translation by substituting The present work also offers the reader “Quraan” for “Koran” (as this latter spelling is insight into contemporary Islamic visions of rarely used today). When he uses an especially the Quraan and Muhammad’s life. In part 3 antiquated word (such as “haply”), I offer a (chapter 8), I illustrate how Islam’s interac- modern equivalent in brackets “[perhaps].” In tion with the West has led Muslims to develop some cases, however, I present my own trans- new ideas about the Quraan and the prophet lation in order to clarify a point in the under- Muhammad today. lying Arabic. (Such cases are identified with a parenthetical note.) Instead of using footnotes or endnotes, I present the sources of quota- Features in this Book tions in abbreviated form in parentheses. The full form of these (and other) sources, and a Before turning to the main body of the work, brief description of them, can be found in the the reader might benefit from some practical section “Bibliography and Further Reading” remarks about it. For the most part, I have at the end of the book. avoided technical Arabic terms. When I do The present work includes a number employ such terms, I generally define them at of other supplementary features that offer their first occurrence. In addition, readers will unique insights on Islam’s emergence. The find a glossary at the end of this work with opening of the work includes a reference map technical Arabic terms, English terms used in of the Middle East, a timeline that offers an a specialized manner, and a brief identifica- overview of the traditional chronology of tion of the main historical and religious per- Islam’s development, and a chart that pre- sonalities of early Islam. sents Muhammad’s family background, and In many recent English publications, the his descendants, according to the traditional God of Islam is named Allah, as though Allah Islamic account of his life. were the personal name of the God of Islam More resources are found in the body of the alone (an idea that inspired a 2007 law in work itself. Interspersed in the text are pho- Malaysia prohibiting non-Muslims from call- tographs of Islamic manuscripts and monu- ing God Allah). In fact, Allah is simply the ments, reproductions of classical objects of word “God” in Arabic (for which reason it Islamic art, and charts/maps meant to illus- is used also by Arabic-speaking Christians). trate Islamic ideas and traditions. Readers will Accordingly, in this work, I simply use the also discover three types of text boxes: excerpts xii v Preface of original Islamic sources (some of which are above a, i, and u to differentiate long Arabic presented here in English for the first time); vowels from short Arabic vowels. In the pres- simple introductions to basic topics of Islamic ent work, which is not meant to be technical, religion (such as the pilgrimage to Mecca, I include neither dots nor macrons. However, the notion of jinn or “genies,” and the idea of I do include the sign u to indicate the Arabic jihad); and brief biographies of key Muslim consonant uayn (which represents a sound figures in text boxes identified as “Personalities close to the bleating of sheep), as in the name in Islam.” Furthermore, at the end of each uAli, and the sign a to indicate the Arabic con- chapter, study questions are included for indi- sonant hamza (which represents a sound that vidual reflection or group discussion.

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