Historic Sources of Advent of Islam

Last updated: May 30th, 2025 at 2:44 pm · Est. Reading Time: < 1 minute

Definition of the Historic Period

The period when Prophet Muhammad preached Islam.

Absence of primary sources

Not a single inscription has come to light from the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad.¹  Neither is there any other archaeological material available, like coins, manuscripts, ruins, etc.  Even non-Islamic extant writings are absent for this period.

Availability of secondary sources

The only secondary sources available to reconstruct the history of the advent of Islam are secondary sources, mainly extant accounts of Sirah (sīrah سيرة) traditions and Hadith (ḥadīth حديث) traditions written by early Muslim scholars.  Sirah traditions are recordings of events in the life of the Prophet Muhammad, and Hadith traditions are recordings of sayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad.

Both these traditions remained oral for about a century or so after the death of the Prophet before being preserved in written form.²  One reason for them circulating only orally during the early period of Islam was a public belief that an Islamic scholar should be capable of memorising the traditions.³  The earliest written accounts were personal notes of the scholars rather than published books.

Further Reading

https://historyofislam.org/sources-of-advent-of-islam

End notes

1. Christian Julien Robin, “Languages and Scripts” in Roads of Arabia, eds. ‘Ali ibn Ibrāhīm Ghabbān, Beatrice Andre-Salvini, Francoise Demange, Carine Juvin, and Marianne Cotty, (Paris: Louvre, 2010), 119.
2. For a detailed survey of early Islamic sources, their techniques and limitations, see: Robinson Chase, Islamic Historiography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
3. Michael Cook, “Opponents of the Writing of Traditions in Early Islam,” Arabica 44 (1997): 437 – 530.