Muḥammad and His Followers in Context: The Religious Map of Late Antique Arabia

By Ilkka Lindstedt

Series: Islamic History and Civilization, Vol. 209

Publisher: Brill

Publication Date: November 2, 2023

Hardcover: 372 pages

ISBN: 9789004687127

This title is published in Open Access with the support of the University of Helsinki Library.

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The book surveys and analyzes changes in religious groups and identities in late antique Arabia, ca. 300-700 CE. It engages with contemporary and material evidence: for example, inscriptions, archaeological remains, Arabic poetry, the Qurʾān, and the so-called Constitution of Medina. Also, it suggests ways to deal with the later Arabic historiographical and other literary texts. The issue of social identities and their processes are central to the study. For instance, how did Arabian ethnic and religious identities intersect on the eve of Islam? The book suggests that the changes in social groups were more piecemeal than previously thought.

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
  – Prolegomena and Methodological Considerations
  – Ethnic, Linguistic, and Tribal Situation in Arabia before Islam
• 2. Judaism
  – Judaism in Late Antiquity
  – The Arabian Context
  – Conclusions
• 3. Christianity
  – Christianity in Late Antiquity
  – The Arabian Context
  – Conclusions
• 4. Gentiles
  – Introduction
  – Idolatry and Polytheism in Arabia
  – Gentile Monotheism in Arabia
  – The Idea of Abrahamic Descent in Arabia before Islam
  – An Excursus to Later Arabic Historiography: ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s Dream
  – Conclusions
• 5. The Rise of the Gentile Prophet in Mecca
  – Introduction and Methodological Considerations
  – Mecca
  – Excursus: Arabic Historiography on the Meccan Period
  – Conclusions on the Meccan Period
• 6. The Founding and Consolidating of the Community in Medina
  – The “Constitution” of Medina
  – The Believers in the Medinan Qurʾān
  – The People of the Book in the Medinan Period
  – The Jews in the Qurʾān
  – The Christians in the Qurʾān
  – Inna al-dīn ʿinda Allāh al-islām
  – Gentile Purity and Dietary Regulations
  – The Eschaton Postponed?
  – Excursus: Arabic Historiography and the Medinan Era
  – Conclusions on the Medinan Era
• 7. Near-Contemporary Non-Arabic Views on the Prophet and His Community
  – Near-Contemporary Non-Arabic Views on the Prophet’s Community
• 8. Concluding toward Early Islamic Times
  – “No Two Religions”
  – Conclusions

About the Author

Ilkka Lindstedt, Ph.D. (2014), is Lecturer in Islamic theology at the University of Helsinki. He deals with pre-Islamic Arabia, early Islam, Arabic historiography, and Arabic epigraphy. Recent publications include: Ilkka Lindstedt, Nina Nikki, and Riikka Tuori (eds.), Religious Identities in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Walking Together & Parting Ways, Brill 2022.

Source: Brill

Studies on the Life of Muhammad and the Dawn of Islam: Idol Worshippers, Christians and Jews in Pre- and Early Islam

By Michael Lecker

Series: Variorum Collected Studies

Publisher: Routledge

Publication Date: October 31, 2023

This volume includes 20 articles published between 1994 and 2020 on the subject of Muḥammad and the history of early Islam, covered in five sections: Arabia on the Eve of Islam, Muḥammad at Medina, Muḥammad and the Jews, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq and the sīra and studies on early Islamic literature.

The book focuses on a variety of historical questions, from the presumed Ghassanid/Byzantine involvement in the hijra to Muḥammad’s treaties with the main Jewish tribes of Yathrib/Medina. Predilection for detail, especially in the realms of genealogy and geography, is a salient characteristic of Lecker’s research, which in recent years has been increasingly based on digitized text repositories. Many of the articles deal with the social and economic environment of early Islam, which is vital for the study of Muḥammad’s biography. They are conceived of as building blocks in a future critical biography of the Arabian prophet.

Studies on the Life of Muhammad and the Dawn of Islam will appeal to those interested in the history of pre- and early Islam, with an emphasis on Muḥammad’s life and his relations with the Jews of Arabia.

About the Author

Michael Lecker is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Arabic Language and Literature of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published extensively on pre- and early Islamic history, the biography of the Prophet Muḥammad and the Jews of the Arabian Peninsula.ArabianProphet

Table of Contents

Part 1: Arabia on the Eve of Islam

1. Pre-Islamic Arabia
2. The Monotheistic Cousins of Muḥammad’s Wife Khadīja

Part 2: Muḥammad at Medina

3. Were the Ghassānids and the Byzantines behind Muḥammad’s hijra?
4. Genealogy and Politics: Muḥammad’s Family Links with the Khazraj
5. The Emigration of ʿUtba ibn Abī Waqqāṣ
6. Did the Quraysh Conclude a Treaty with the Anṣār Prior to the hijra?

Part 3: Muḥammad and the Jews

7. Abū Mālik ʿAbdallāh b. Sām of Kinda, a Jewish Convert to Islam
8. Were the Jewish Tribes in Arabia Clients of Arab Tribes?
9. Did Muḥammad Conclude Treaties with the Jewish Tribes Naḍīr, Qurayẓa and Qaynuqāʿ?
10. The Assassination of the Jewish Merchant Ibn Sunayna according to an Authentic Family Account
11. Were there Female Relatives of the Prophet Muḥammad among the Besieged Qurayẓa?
12. Wāqidī (d. 822) vs. Zuhrī (d. 742): The Fate of the Jewish Banū Abī l-Ḥuqayq

Part 4: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq and the sīra

13. Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ṣāḥib al-sīra/ṣāḥib al-maghāzī
14. Muḥammad b. Isḥāq ṣāḥib al-maghāzī: Was his Grandfather Jewish?
15. When did Ibn Isḥāq compose his maghāzī?
16. Notes about Censorship and Self-Censorship in the Biography of the Prophet Muḥammad

Part 5: Studies on early Islamic Literature

17. The Jewish Reaction to the Islamic Conquests
18. Wa-bi-Rādhān mā bi-Rādhān…: The landed Property of ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿūd
19. On the Burial of Martyrs in Islam
20. The Futūḥ al-Shām of ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad b. Rabīʿa al-Qudāmī

Source: Routledge