Stephen J. Shoemaker

Whereas Christianity and the Bible have been subjected to all sorts of textual and historical-critical criticism, Islam and the Qur'an has been less so. This work is the attempt to apply a history of religions perspective to the origins of the Qur'an.

The author outlines the history of historical-critical reception of the origins of the Qur'an and sees a lot of uncritical acceptance of the narrative proffered in Sunni Islam: Uthman collected the recollections of the Prophet shortly after his death.

The author will systematically explore the evidence to give more credence to another story preserved in Islamic tradition: it was Abu Bakr who was responsible for the compilation and standardization of the Qur'an in the eighth century, and the Qur'an did not feature prominently in the faith of Believers in the seventh century.

The author has many strong arguments. The evidence from the Christians who first encounter Islam indicates grappling with many things but the conspicuous absence of conversation about the Qur'an in the seventh century. The Hijaz was on the periphery of the world and did not have a lot of Christian influence and only a few small groups of Jewish people in the days of Muhammad; furthermore there is no evidence, and much contrary evidence, to the suggestion of widespread literacy in the Hijaz in the days of Muhammad. Likewise there is much in the Qur'an which makes a lot more sense in a Levantine context than an Arabian one and appropriate evidence is adduced.

I would have accepted the argument based on all of this evidence on its own, but the author will always go further in criticism based on the history of religions conclusions reached on the basis of speculation regarding the "real story" of how the Gospels and other texts of the New Testament came to be. The author speaks of evidence to show the complete unreliability of oral memory. I understand how this might persuade the history of religions crowd; and whereas confessionally I would be tempted to go along in resistance to Islam, I have so little confidence in how the history of religions ideology has been used to explain early Christianity that I cannot maintain much confidence in its application to early Islam.

But you don't need a history of religions ideological approach to be able to see and appreciate how the Abu Bakr story has more to commend it than the Uthman one. I am even more inclined than the author to believe a lot of things in the Qur'an do derive directly from Muhammad and his teachings, but would agree the Qur'an as currently composed is self-consciously done in comparison and contrast to Christianity in an aggressive stance against Christianity as the forces of Islam had conquered significant territory in Roman Empire.

So there's probably good reason why Islamic scholars and authorities have resisted subjecting the Qur'an and early Islam to the forms of criticism to which the Bible and Christianity have been subject for years. It would likely turn out even worse for them.… (mehr)

The rise of Islam is most often a faith-filled theological endeavor but now historical investigations have enlivened traditional accounts of Islamic origins which introduces these investigations to the classroom. The collection supplies academics with carefully crafted, introduced, and annotated materials from non-Islamic sources verifying the early years of historical Islam. These sources stand alone or in coordination with the Qur'an and faith-based Islamic materials. For many, this volume applies historical-critical analysis for these invaluable sources to equal belated and questionable Islamic narratives about Mohammed and the formation of his new religious movement.

Comparable work has long been available for Judaism and Christianity but this sourcebook is a valuable contribution to reliable historical data balancing theologically-based approaches to the rise of Islam. It is a non-theological work indebted to comparative religious inquiry.

The work notably includes new English translations of sources by twenty authors, originally written not only in Greek and Latin but diversified works in Syriac, Georgian, Armenian, Hebrew, and Arabic. Furthermore, the vast geographical range spans England to Egypt and Iran. This sourcebook offers tools to meaningfully and freshly approach the rise of Islam with parallel linguistic foundations.

Mohammed died in 632 (p. 4) yet Fred Donner (p. 8) demonstrates that Jews and Christians kept their original faith for decades after Mohammed (p. 16). The Constitution of Medina (p. 17) indicates the status of these groups as well. The Qur'an corresponds (2.62; 5.69) to the statement as well. Jews and Christians retained their distinctive religion as long as they agreed to monotheism and the eschaton (p. 18). Mohammed was more simply seen as a religious leader "rather than a prophet with a new dispensation" (p. 19).

Early texts such as that of John of Damascus and that of Leo III (p. 23) verify the historical nature of early Islam. During the 730s, John wrote a polemic yet had intimate knowledge (p. 24) of the tri-fold nature of Islam. The Leo vs. Umar letters around the 730s are another witness to the nature of Islam (p. 25). The author of the Qur'an appears to be al-Hajjaj (p. 26). Historically, we can verify that the Qur'an is corrupt since alternative versions were destroyed. During this early period of growth no Islamic text is mentioned much less the Qur'an (p. 27). Jews, Christians, and a third unaffiliated group, became known as Muslims in this inter-confessional community (p. 33). All three groups were simply referred to as Believers (p. 34).… (mehr)

Following Hagarism, this is a reinterpretation of the beginnings of Islam using early non-Islamic sources and the methods of form-criticism originally applied to the Bible, especially the Gospels.I tend to distrust those methods but some of the writer's principles seem sensible. The focus of the book as the title indicates, is the fact that some early non-Islamic sources say Muhammad lived to preside over the first Muslim invasion of Palestine, whereas the Islamic sources say he died a few years earlier before the Muslims began to expand beyond Arabia.… (mehr)