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

by Michael Lecker

Overview

This volume includes 20 articles published between 1994 and 2020 on the subject of Muhammad and the history of early Islam, covered in five sections: Arabia on the Eve of Islam, Muhammad at Medina, Muhammad and the Jews, Muhammad 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 Muhammad’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 Muhammad’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 Muhammad’s life and his relations with the Jews of Arabia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032449821
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/31/2023
Series:	Variorum Collected Studies
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

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 Muhammad and the Jews of the Arabian Peninsula.

Table of Contents

1 Pre-Islamic Arabia / 2 The Monotheistic Cousins of Muhammad’s Wife Khadīja / 3 Were the Ghassānids and the Byzantines behind Muhammad’s hijra? / 4 Genealogy and Politics: Muhammad’s Family Links with the Khazraj / 5 The Emigration of ʿUtba ibn Abī Waqqāṣ6 Did the Quraysh Conclude a Treaty with the Anṣār Prior to the hijra? / 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 Muhammad 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 Muhammad among the Besieged Qurayẓa? / 12 Wāqidī (d. 822) vs. Zuhrī (d. 742): The Fate of the Jewish Banū Abī l-Ḥuqayq / 13 Muhammad ibn Isḥāq ṣāḥib al-sīra ṣāḥib al-maghāzī / 14 Muhammad 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 Muhammad / 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. Muhammad b. Rabīʿa al-Qudāmī