Collection of all of Martin Hinds' (1941-1988) full-length articles which appeared in journals as well as one of his articles for the Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd Edition. Most of the articles have to do with the early period of Islamic history, while two others deal with the early ʿAbbāsid caliphate. The volume is especially important in light of the fact that all of the articles were revised by the editors based on Hinds' own corrected copies: 1. Kūfan Political Alignments and Their Background in the Mid-Seventh Century A.D 2. The Murder of the Caliph 'Uthmān 3. The Ṣiffīn Arbitration Agreement 4 . The Banners and Battle Cries of the Arabs at Ṣiffīn (A.D. 657) 5. Sayf ibn 'Umar's Sources on Arabia 6. A Letter from the Governor of Egypt Concerning Egyptian-Nubian Relations in 141/758 7. Maghāzī and Sīra in Early Islamic Scholarship 8. The First Arab Conquests in Fārs 9. Miḥna "Hinds' articles are essential reading for any specialist in early Islamic history" (Michael Bates)

This successor volume to The Hidden Origins of Islam (edited by Karl-Heinz Ohlig and Gerd-R. Puin) continues the pioneering research begun in the first volume into the earliest development of Islam. Using coins, commemorative building inscriptions, and a rigorous linguistic analysis of the Koran along with Persian and Christian literature from the seventh and eighth centuries--when Islam was in its formative stages--five expert contributors attempt a reconstruction of this critical time period. Despite the scholarly nature of their work, the implications of their discoveries are startling: -Islam originally emerged as a sect of Christianity. -Its central theological tenets were influenced by a pre-Nicean, Syrian Christianity. -Aramaic, the common language throughout the Near East for many centuries and the language of Syrian Christianity, significantly influenced the Arabic script and vocabulary used in the Koran. -Finally, it was not until the end of the eighth and ninth centuries that Islam formed as a separate religion, and the Koran underwent a period of historical development of at least 200 years.Controversial and highly intriguing, this critical historical analysis reveals the beginning of Islam in a completely new light.

Tayeb El-Hibri draws on medieval Islamic chronicles to remap the origins of Islamic political and religious orthodoxy, offering an insightful critique of both early and contemporary Islam and the concerns of legitimacy shadowing various rulers. He also highlights the Islamic reinterpretation of biblical traditions.

Ibn ʿAsākir's massive Taʿrīkh madīnat Dimashq (TMD) is a veritable gold mine of information for our understanding of the first five and one-half centuries of Islamic history. This book offers important insights on the mechanics of Arabic historiography, in particular on biographical sources from the Middle period. Moreover, two contributions show that Ibn ʿAsākir pursued a political and sectarian agenda within his TMD. 1. James E. Lindsay, Ibn ʿAsākir, His Taʿrīkh madīnat Dimashq and its Usefulness for Understanding Early Islamic History 2. Suleiman A. Mourad, Jesus According to Ibn ʿAsākir 3. Fred M. Donner, 'Uthmān and the Rāshidun Caliphs in Ibn ʿAsākir's Taʿrīkh madīnat Dimashq: a Study in Strategies of Compilation 4. Marianne Engle Cameron, Sayf at First: the Transmission of Sayf ibn 'Umar in al-Tabarī and Ibn ʿAsākir 5. Steven C. Judd, Ibn Asākir's Sources for the Late Umayyad Period 6. Paul M. Cobb, Community versus Contention: Ibn ʿAsākir and 'Abbāsid Syria Appendices: Publication History of TMD; Studies Addressing TMD; Major Lacunae in TMD; Pre-Islamic Sacred Biographies in TMD; Muhammad, the Rāshidun, and the Umayyad Caliphs in TMD.

This book offers a new approach to the vexing question of how to write the early history of Islam. The first part discusses the nature of the Muslim and non-Muslim source material for the seventh- and eighth-century Middle East and argues that by lessening the divide between these two traditions, which has largely been erected by modern scholarship, we can come to a better appreciation of this crucial period. The second part gives a detailed survey of sources and an analysis of some 120 non-Muslim texts, all of which provide information about the first century and a half of Islam (roughly A.D. 620-780). The third part furnishes examples, according to the approach suggested in the first part and with the material presented in the second part, how one might write the history of this time. The fourth part takes the form of excurses on various topics, such as the process of Islamization, the phenomenon of conversion to Islam, the development of techniques for determining the direction of prayer, and the conquest of Egypt. Because this work views Islamic history with the aid of non-Muslim texts and assesses the latter in the light of Muslim writings, it will be essential reading for historians of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, or Zoroastrianism--indeed, for all those with an interest in cultures of the eastern Mediterranean in its traditional phase from Late Antiquity to medieval times.

The Islamic qāṣṣ (preacher/storyteller) has been viewed most commonly as a teller of stories, primarily religious in nature and often unreliable. Building on material of over a hundred quṣṣāṣ from the rise of Islam through the end of the Umayyad period, this book offers the most comprehensive study of the early Islamic qāṣṣ to-date. By constructing profiles of these preachers/ storytellers and examining statements attributed to them, it argues that they were not merely storytellers but were in fact a complex group with diverse religious interests. The book demonstrates how the style and conduct of their teaching sessions distinguished them from other teachers and preachers and also explores their relationship with early religio-political movements, as well as with the Umayyad administration.

Documents and the History of the Early Islamic World presents new Greek, Arabic and Coptic material from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries C.E. from Egypt and Palestine and explores its rich potential for historical analysis.

Bringing together the expansive scholarly expertise of former students of Professor Michael Allan Cook, this volume contains highly original articles in Islamic history, law, and thought. The contributions range from studies in the pre-Islamic calendar, to the "blood-money group" in Islamic law, to transformations in Arabic logic.

Analyses the narrative function of Khārijism in 9th- and 10th-century Islamic historiography