The quest for the historical Muhammad.

Muhammad. - edited and translated by Ibn Warraq. -

ISBN 10: 1573927872 / ISBN 13: 9781573927871

Published by New York, PB Prometheus Books, 2000., 2000

About this Item

8°, Original hardback in the original illustrated dust jacket. 554 pages. Individual pages with erasable pencil markings. Overall, however, clean and in good condition. --- Original-Pappband im originalen illustrierten Umschlag. 554 Seiten. Einzelne Seiten mit radierbaren Bleistift-Anstreichungen. Insgesamt aber sauber und gut erhalten. -- Bitte Portokosten außerhalb EU erfragen! / Please ask for postage costs outside EU! / S ' il vous plait demander des frais de port en dehors de l ' UE! // Bitte beachten Sie auch unsere Fotos! / Please also note our photos! / Veuillez noter nos photos -- Wir kaufen Ihre werthaltigen Bücher! Arab.ik.

Seller Inventory # 433463

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The quest for the historical Muhammad.
• Publisher: New York, PB Prometheus Books, 2000.
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1573927872
• ISBN 13: 9781573927871
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • ASIEN / ORIENTALISTIK

About this title

Synopsis

More than one hundred years ago Western scholars began to investigate the origins of Islam, using the highest standards of objective historical scholarship of the time. Their aim was to determine what could be known about Muhammad and the rise of early Islam quite apart from the pious and totally unobjective traditions preserved by the Muslim religious community. In some ways this research was inspired by a similar investigation of Christianity made famous by Albert Schweitzer's Quest of the Historical Jesus. Today although much has been learned about early Christianity, little comparable progress has been made in the field of Islamic Studies. Here objective historical research has long been severely handicapped both by the resistance of Muslim societies to Western analysis of their sacred traditions and by the apologetic approaches of many Western scholars, who have compromised their investigations for fear of offending Muslim sensibilities.

It is in this context that Ibn Warraq presents this important anthology of the best studies of Muhammad and early Islam ranging from the very beginnings of Islamic Studies in the nineteenth century to contemporary research. In his selection and in an introductory essay, Warraq makes it clear that some very serious scholarly controversies lie at the heart of Islam. First, the Koran itself, the Muslim sacred scripture and the foundation of Islamic culture, is called into question as the basis for objective historical knowledge of Muhammad. Some scholars have also questioned the reliability of most of the other early Arabic documents that supposedly attest to events in the life of Muhammad and his followers. Was the Koran dictated by Muhammad at all? Was it actually compiled any earlier than a hundred years after the Prophet's death? How much of Muslim sacred tradition, in the light of objective historical analysis, must be dismissed as unreliable hearsay? Were the motives of the first Muslim conquerors during the Jihad truly religious in nature or largely mercenary? These disturbing questions, long suppressed throughout the history of Islamic scholarship, are here raised again in these erudite and thoroughly researched essays by noted scholars.

About the Author

Ibn Warraq is the highly acclaimed author of Why I Am Not a Muslim, Virgins? What Virgins?, and Defending the West. He is also the editor of The Origins of the Koran, What the Koran Really Says, Leaving Islam, The Quest for the Historical Muhammad, and Which Koran?.