Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam - Böcker

This volume provides a discussion of the works of Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (d. 932 CE) the greatest historian of the early Islamic world. An international team of well-known scholars examine the life of the man, his work, the sources he used and his intellectual legacy. Grouped around four major themes - Caliphate and power, economy and society, Abbasids, and frontiers and the others - the contributions deal with the history, archaeology, architecture and literature of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond, from the time of the Prophet until the fifteenth century. It is difficult to say whether we should treat him as an author or as an editor, repackaging earlier works, all fully acknowledged. What were his biases and prejudices? Was he a propagandist for the reigning Abbasid dynasty or simply a passer on of the traditions he found? This volume, bringing together some of the most eminent scholars of early Arabic historiography is the first attempt to answer some of these questions and it will be of fundamental importance to anyone interested in the early Islamic world or in comparative historiography..

The 'Constitution of Medina' is probably the first legal document of Muhammad and dates back to the first year after his hijra (622 CE), or "emigration", which brought him from his hometown Mecca to the cluster of towns known as Yathrib or Medina in the Hijaz (northern Arabia) and marked the beginning of the Islamic era. Muslim historians and jurists have been familiar with this important document for centuries, and aware of its legal and theological implications for Islamic law. It was first brought to the attention of scholars in the West at the end of the 19th century by Wellhausen, who accepted it as an authentic document from the time of the Prophet. Since then, such leading orientalists as Goldziher, Gil, Serjeant, Goto, U. Rubin and J. B. Simonsen have studied various aspects of it. This monograph offers an edited translation and interpretation of the earliest and most important document from the time of Muhammad. Lecker's focus is on the Jewish tribes, the Treaty of the Mu'minun and the Treaty of the Jews..

This two-volume set delves deeply into the life of the Muslim scholar Ibn Aʿtham al-Kūfī and his monumental historical work, the Kitāb al-futūḥ (Book of Conquests). Previous research has treated this work with considerable suspicion, and its historical value was called into question almost from the very moment of its discovery. This study firmly situates Ibn Aʿtham within the historical context of the early fourth/tenth century, shedding new light on his notable contributions to Islamic historiography. Volume 1 examines Ibn Aʿtham’s biography, proposes a refined timeframe for his life and work, and investigates the reception of his work across the Muslim world and in modern scholarship, identifying significant periods of popularity in different regions. Detailed codicological descriptions of the Kitāb al-futūḥ’s surviving Arabic manuscripts underscore the complexity of the textual tradition, while analyses of the sources of the narrative on the ridda (’apostasy’) wars and its poetic elements enrich our understanding of Ibn Aʿtham’s sources and his authorial methods. The book also provides critical editions of the Kitāb al-futūḥ’s collective isnāds, prepared on the basis of all available Arabic manuscripts, alongside their translations and detailed analyses. Volume 2 presents a new critical edition of the Kitāb al-futūḥ’s first sections, covering the saqīfa and ridda narratives based on the chronicle’s two manuscripts kept in the Forschungsbibliothek Gotha and the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library in Patna.