Marilyn Robinson Waldman (1943-1996), the last graduate student of Marshall G.S. Hodgson from the University of Chicago, taught at Ohio State University, where she established the Religious Studies Program and also served as Director of the Center for Comparative Studies. Her research covered the areas of Islamic historiography, the history of religions, and comparative humanities. Bruce B. Lawrence is Nancy & Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor and Professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. A specialist in Indo-Persian culture and the comparative study of religious movements, he has authored, co-authored, edited, and co-edited sixteen books. They include translations, monographs and trade books, the most recent being The Qur'an: A Biography (2006) and, with Aisha Karim, On Violence: A Reader (2007).

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• Preface Bruce B. Lawrence Prologue: Inviting Prophets and Entertaining Comparisons 1. Opening a Black Box: Rethinking the Comparative Study of 'Prophecy' 2. Comparatively Speaking: Qur'anic Comparison as a Modality of Change 3. Beyond Compare: Muhammad as Exemplar and Foil 4. An Experiment in Comparison: Muhammad and Alinesitoue (edited by Robert M. Baum, University of Missouri) Postscript Lindsay Jones, The Ohio State University