Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing (Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam, No. 14) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The beginnings of historical writing in the Islamic tradition must be seen in relation to the character of the early community of Believers, particularly its..." (more)
Key Phrases: Abu Bakr, First Civil War, Prophet Muhammad (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

How and why did Muslims first come to write their own history? The author argues in this work that the Islamic historical tradition arose not out of "idle curiosity," or through imitation of antique models, but as a response to a variety of challenges facing the Islamic community during its first several centuries (ca. seventh to tenth centuries C.E.). The narratives that resulted focused on certain themes of Islamic origins, selected to legitimize particular aspects of the Islamic community and faith in one or another. These included the need to establish the status of Muhammad (d. 632) as prophet, to affirm that the community to which they belonged was the direct descendant of the original community founded by the Prophet, to explain (and justify) Muslim hegemony over vast populations of non-Muslims in the rapidly growing Islamic empire, and to articulate different positions in the ongoing debate with the Islamic community itself over political and religious leadership. An examination of these key themes of early Islamic historiography and the issues generating them is placed in the context of other styles of legitimation in the early Islamic community, including such methods as appeals to piety and genealogy.

Narratives of Islamic Origins is a groundbreaking work that represents the first comprehensive tradition-critical account of the origins and rise of Arab-Islamic historiography, and is essential reading for all historians of medieval Islamic history and civilization, and for all those interested in the historiography of comparative civilizations.

About the Author

Fred M. Donner is Professor of Near Eastern History, The Oriental Institute and the University of Chicago, where he is the Chair, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. He is the author of numerous studies on early Islamic history and historiography.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 358 pages
• Publisher: Darwin Press, Incorporated (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0878501274
• ISBN-13: 978-0878501274
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #436,022 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lucid and Convincing, June 30, 2003

By	Tron Honto - See all my reviews

This work is a key contribution in the debate over the historicity and reliability of the early Islamic tradition. Donner's work provides an alternative, redactionary and critical approach to the rise of narrative and historical texts in early Muslim narratives to the `skeptical' approach-associated primarily with the like of P. Crone, M. Cook, and J. Wansborough among others. In the end, he endorses a critical approach to traditional accounts of Islamic origins but one that does not reject its broad outlines. Though this feature distinguishes and orients the argument of the book, it by no means exhausts the book's contents.

The main aim of the work is to address this straightforward question: "Why did Muslims begin to narrate and eventually compose history?" His argument answers this question by examining the evolution of salient narrative themes that predominately arise as result of efforts to procure legitimacy. Hence, the evolution of historical writing is pushed for by the function it serves for establishing the legitimacy of one or another groups' claim to legitimacy. The resulting picture goes far in helping explain some of the odd idiosyncrasies of early Islamic history-e.g., the absence of chronology.

I found the general outlines of the book to be quite convincing; however, the devil is in the details, as it is said. Critical examination of hadith may lead us to confer that it is plausible that the first four caliphs were Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali in that order, that the Battle of the Camel and Siffin occurred, but the details-copiously provided in Islamic tradition-remain highly dubious. In this sense, the ramifications of the book's arguments, even if valid, are not fully drawn and remain open to investigation.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important contribution to the study of how Islam arrived., March 14, 1999

By A Customer

A very important study that counters much of the arguments put forth by revisionist historians like Wansborough and Crone. He delves into the nature of the sources, the formation of identity during the earliest phases and ways of understanding the nature of the Movement (Islam). His style is refreshingly clear and consice and his scholarship exhaustive. A must read for any student of Islamic history.