Advent of Islam

Historians are divided on how to critically analyse the traditions noted down by Early Islamic Sources to reconstruct history. Total Rejection and Its Implications A school of thought among modern historians, like Koren and Nevo, outright rejects early Islamic sources.   They believe that the discrepancies in early Muslim resources, both noted by early Muslim historians […]

Noseda has studied all available folios of the Quran reputed to be from the first Islamic century.  He infers that the combined content of all of them constitutes about 83% of the Uthmanic Text. Kodex Wezstein II 1913 is a Qur’an manuscript kept at Staatsbibliothek, Berlin.  It is from the early eighth century CE.  Its

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.  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

Start of Criticism Among modern historians, Goldziher was the first to raise serious concerns about Hadith traditions being an authentic source of history.  Many others, especially Western scholars, were convinced by Goldziher.  Later on, Lammens added Sirah literature into the same category of doubtful historical sources. Flaws in Early Islamic Sources 1:  They are not

First Generation Sirah Traditionalists Aban bin Uthman One of the earliest known Muslim Sirah recorders was Aban bin Uthman (Abān bin ‘Uthmān اّبان بِن عُثمان), the son of caliph Uthman.  Being the son of the caliph, he might be aware of some inside stories not known to the general public.  We would not have been

First Generation Hadith Scholars It is known that the process of Hadith narration and preservation had started immediately after the death of the Prophet Muhammad.  Abdullah bin Abbas (‘Abdallah bin ‘Abbās عِبدَاللَه بِن عَبَاس) and Abdullah bin Umar (‘Abdallah bin ‘Umar عِبدَاللَه بِن عُمَر) are two Companions who particularly devoted themselves to this work.  Their

Historians have been working hard to develop a generic methodology of history. Nowadays, historical methodology for developing the history of early Islam is fairly well developed. Pick earlier over later sources. As we know, the longer the temporal distance between a source from the event, the higher the chances of it being distorted; historians pick

We do not know with certainty when Hadith literature started to be reduced to writing. A papyrus fragment is preserved in the Oriental Institute of Chicago.  The content of the papyrus is some Hadith traditions, which are part of Mawtta of Malik (d. c. 795 CE) (Muwaṭṭā’ lil Mālik bin ‘Anas مَوطاء لِلمالِك بِن ءانَس). 

The earliest known portion of a Qur’an manuscript is housed in the library of the University of Birmingham. Description These are two folios that treasure hunters collected from the Middle East in the 1920s.  Carbon dating of the folios has confirmed that the animal on whose skin this manuscript is written was alive between 568

Prophet Muhammad was a real person who lived and breathed on this earth. Historical evidence British library houses a number of manuscripts in its Oriental Manuscript Collection.  One of them is BL Add. Mss: 14,461.  This manuscript has 107 pages and contains Gospel according to Matthew and Gospel according to Mark. Somebody scribbled a few