Early Islamic Historical Writing
The investigation enters a new phase, that of vetting Islamic sources. The Qur'an is shown to be an important historical source for the biography of the Prophet and the evolution of the umma (Muslim community) once individual suras are classified into chronologically distinct groups. Attention then turns to the voluminous historical traditions about the rise of Islam picked up by later Muslim historians. Two lines of argument are developed—one from general considerations and the other from a comparison of Islamic and non‐Islamic testimonies about the futuh (conquests), fitna (civil conflict), and warfare against the Romans—in favour of the authenticity of the kernels of early Islamic historical traditions and their chronological ordering. Only three events—the capture of Jerusalem, the assassination of ‘Ali, and the battle of Karbala—can be shown to be out of sequence, in each case because a higher, religious truth has prevailed.
Keywords: Qur’an, umma, Prophet, sura, Islam, futuh, fitna, Jerusalem, ‘Ali, Karbala
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