Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical WritingHow and why did Muslims first come to write their own history? The author argues in this work that the Islamic historical tradition arose not out of idle curiosity, or through imitation of antique models, but as a response to a variety of challenges facing the Islamic community during its first several centuries (ca. seventh to tenth centuries CE). The narratives that resulted focused on certain themes of Islamic origins, selected to legitimise particular aspects of the Islamic community and faith in one or another. These included the need to establish the status of Muhammad (d. 632) as prophet, to affirm that the community to which they belonged was the direct descendant of the original community founded by the Prophet, to explain Muslim hegemony over vast populations of non-Muslims in the rapidly growing Islamic empire, and to articulate different positions in the ongoing debate with the Islamic community itself over political and religious leadership.An examination of these key themes of early Islamic historiography and the issues generating them is placed in the context of other styles of legitimisation in the early Islamic community, including such methods as appeals to piety and genealogy. Narratives of Islamic Origins is a ground-breaking work that represents the first comprehensive tradition -- critical account of the origins and rise of Arab-Islamic historiography, and is essential reading for all historians of medieval Islamic history and civilisation, and for all those interested in the historiography of comparative civilisations. |
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Abbasids Abd Allah ibn Abī Abū Ma'shar Abū Mikhnaf accounts akhbār al-Tabarī al-Waqidī al-Zuhrī Alī Allāh Arabia Arabic Bakr Byzantine caliphs chapter Christian chronological claims collections community of Believers context Crone Donner earliest early community early Islamic history Egypt episodes example fitna futuḥ genealogy ḥadīth ḥadīth literature hijra historians historicizing historiographical historiographical themes historiographical tradition ibid ibn Abd Ibn Asakir Ibn Ishaq Ibn Sa'd idem inscriptions Iraq Islamic community Islamic conquests Islamic origins Islamic tradition isnād Khārijī Kitāb late antique leadership legitimation literary maghāzī material Medina moral Mu'awiya Muḥammad Muḥammad ibn Muslim narratives of Islamic Noth/Conrad nubuwa particular piety pious political pre-Islamic Prophet Muḥammad Qur'an Qur'ānic Quraysh religious ridda Sayf scholars second century AH Sīra sources story Sūrat surviving Syria Tafsir tion tribal tribe Ubayd Umar Umar ibn Umayyad umma Urwa ibn al-Zubayr Uthman Wahb Wahb ibn Munabbih Wansbrough's