Muhammad

Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, is undoubtebly one of the most influential persons in history. He is not only the founder of one of the world religions, but has served as a role model for Muslims throughout history. The records of his deeds and sayings are among the most important sources in various fields of Islamic learning, such as Islamic law, ritual, piety, Sufism, or political theory. Muhammad has been a main object of research in Western scholarship on Islam, and there is a huge amount of articles and books devoted to various aspects of his life, the sources of his life and his role in Islamic tradition. These articles, however, are widely dispersed; some can be found in more popular journals and books, others in smaller, less readily available publications. It is therefore reasonable to bring together the most important articles and book chapters on Muhammad in a four volume set.

Muhammad: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies

Edited by Andreas Görke

1. William Montgomery Watt, ‘Note on the Sources’, in Muhammad at Mecca (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1953), pp. xi-xvi.
2. Michael Cook, ‘The Sources’, in Muḥammad (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1980), pp. 61-76.

1.2 The Qurʾān

3. Alford T. Welch, ‘Muḥammad’s Understanding of Himself: The Qurʾānic Data’, in Richard G. Hovannisian and Speros Veronis Jr. (eds), Islam’s Understanding of Itself, (Malibu, Calif.: Undena, 1983), pp. 15-52.
4. Andrew Rippin, ‘Muḥammad in the Qurʾān: Reading Scripture in the 21st Century’, in Harald Motzki (ed.), The Biography of Muḥammad: The Issue of the Sources (Leiden: Brill, 2000), pp. 298-309.
5. Henri Lammens, ‘The Koran and Tradition: How the Life of Muḥammad was Composed’, in Ibn Warraq (ed.), The Quest for the Historical Muhammad (Amherst: Prometheus, 2000), pp. 169-187. (Originally published as ‘Qoran et Tradition, comment fut composée la vie de Mahomed’, Recherches de Science religieuse 1, 1910, 27–51.)
6. Uri Rubin, ‘The Life of Muḥammad and the Qurʾān: The Case of Muḥammad’s hijra’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 28, 2003, 40-64.

1.3 The biographical tradition (sīra and maghāzī)

7. J. M. B. Jones, ‘The Chronology of the Maghāzī – A Textual Survey’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 19, 1957, 245-80.
8. Lawrence I. Conrad, ‘Abraha and Muḥammad: Some Observations Apropos of Chronology and Literary Topoi in the Early Arabic Historical Tradition’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 50, 1987, 225-240.
9. Andreas Görke and Gregor Schoeler, ‘Reconstructing the Earliest sīra Texts: The Hijra in the Corpus of 'Urwa b. al-Zubayr’, Der Islam 82, 2005, 209-220.
10. Nicolet Boekhoff-van der Voort, ‘The Kitāb al-Maghāzī of ʿAbd al-Razzāq b. Hammām al-Ṣanʿānī: Searching for Earlier Source-Material’, in Nicolet Boekhoff-van der Voort et al. (eds), The Transmission and Dynamics of the Textual Sources of Islam (Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. 27-47.
11. Joseph Schacht, ‘On Mūsā b. ʿUqba’s Kitāb al-Maghāzī’, Acta Orientalia 21, 1953, 288-300.
12. Gregor Schoeler, ‘English Summary’ from ‘Mūsā b. ʿUqbas Maghāzī’, in Harald Motzki (ed.), The Biography of Muḥammad: The Issue of the Sources (Leiden: Brill, 2000), pp. 90-97.
13. James Robson, ‘Ibn Isḥāq’s Use of the isnād’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 38, 1966, 449-465.
14. William Montgomery Watt, ‘The Reliability of Ibn-Isḥāq’s Sources’, in La Vie du prophète Mahomet. Colloque de Strasbourg (octobre 1980), Paris 1983, 31–43.
15. Ella Landau-Tasseron, ‘Processes of Redaction: The Case of the Tamīmite Delegation to the Prophet Muḥammad’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 49, 1986, 253-270.
16. Michael Lecker, ‘Wāqidī’s Account on the Status of the Jews of Medina: A Study of a Combined Report’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 54, 1995, 15-32.
17. Michael Lecker, ‘The Death of the Prophet Muḥammad’s Father: Did Wāqidī Invent Some of the Evidence?’, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 145, 1995, 9–27.
18. Rizwi S. Faizer, ‘Muhammad and the Medinan Jews: A Comparison of the Texts of Ibn Ishaq’s Kitāb Sīrat Rasūl Allāh with al-Waqidi’s Kitāb al-Maghāzi’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 28, 1996, 463-489.
19. Rizwi S. Faizer, ‘The Issue of Authenticity Regarding the Traditions of al-Wāqidī as Established in his Kitāb al-Maghāzi’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 58, 1999, 97-106.

1.4 The Ḥadīth

20. Muhammad Qasim Zaman, ‘Maghāzī and the Muḥaddithūn: Reconsidering the Treatment of "Historical" Materials in Early Collection of Hadīth’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 28, 1996, 1-18.
21. Görke, Andreas, ‘The Relationship between Maghāzī and Hadīth in Early Islamic Scholarship’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 74, 2011, 171-185.

1.5 The non-Muslim sources

22. Hoyland, Robert, ‘The Earliest Christian Writings on Muḥammad: An Appraisal’, in Harald Motzki (ed.), The Biography of Muḥammad: The Issue of the Sources (Leiden: Brill, 2000), pp. 276-297.

Volume II: Aspects of Muḥammad’s Life and the Question of the historical Muḥammad

Contents

Acknowledgements

Part 2: Aspects of Muḥammad’s Life

2.1 The Night Journey and Ascension to Heaven (isrāʾ and miʿrāj)

23. Heribert Busse, ‘Jerusalem in the Story of Muhammad’s Night Journey and Ascension’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 14, 1991, 1–40.
24. Uri Rubin, ‘Muhammad’s Night Journey (isrāʾ) to al-Masjid al-Aqṣā: Aspects of the Earliest Origins of the Islamic Sanctity of Jerusalem’, Al-Qantara 29, 2008, 147–164.
25. Josef van Ess, ‘Vision and Ascension: Sūrat al-Najm and its Relationship with Muḥammad’s miʿrāj’, Journal of Qur’anic Studies 1, 1999, 47–62.

2.2 The ‘Constitution’ of Medina

26. Robert Bertram Serjeant, ‘The "Constitution of Medina"’, The Islamic Quarterly 8, 1964, 3-16.
27. Moshe Gil, ‘The Constitution of Medina: A Reconsideration’, Israel Oriental Studies 4, 1974, 44–66.
28. R. B. Serjeant, ‘The Sunnah Jāmiʿah, Pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the Taḥrīm of Yathrib: Analysis and Translation of the Documents Comprised in the So-Called "Constitution of Medina"’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 41, 1978, 1-42.
29. Uri Rubin, ‘The "Constitution of Medina": Some Notes’, Studia Islamica 62, 1985, 5–23.
30. Michael Lecker, ‘Did Muḥammad Conclude Treaties with the Jewish Tribes Naḍīr, Qurayẓa and Qaynuqāʿ?’, Israel Oriental Studies 17, 1997, 29–36.
31. Saïd Amir Arjomand, ‘The Constitution of Medina: A Sociolegal Interpretation of Muhammad’s Acts of Foundation of the Umma’, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 41, 2009, 555–575.

2.3 The Massacre of the Banū Qurayẓa

32. William Montgomery Watt, ‘The Condemnation of the Jews of Banū Qurayẓah: A Study in the Sources of the Sīrah’, The Muslim World 42, 1952, 160-171.
33. W. N.Arafat, ‘New Light on the Story of Banū Qurayẓa and the Jews of Medina’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 2, 1976, 100-107.
34. Meir Jacob Kister, ‘The Massacre of the Banū Qurayẓa: A Re-examination of a Tradition’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 8, 1986, 61-96.

2.4 Socio-economic aspects of Muḥammad’s political consolidation

35. Fred McGraw Donner, ‘Mecca’s Food Supplies and Muhammad’s Boycott’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 20, 1977, 249-266.
36. Fred McGraw Donner, ‘Muhammad’s Political Consolidation in Arabia up to the Conquest of Mecca: A Reassessment’, The Muslim World 69, 1979, 229-247.
37. M. J. Kister, ‘O God, Tighten Thy Grip on Muḍar: Some Socio-Economic and Religious Aspects of an Early Hadīth’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 24, 1981, 242-273.
38. Uri Rubin, ‘Muḥammad’s Curse of Muḍar and the Blockade of Mecca’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 31, 1988, 249-264.

Part 3: The historical Muḥammad

39. F. E. Peters, ‘The Quest of the Historical Muhammad’, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 23, 1991, 291-315.
40. Patricia Crone, ‘What Do We Actually Know About Muhammad?’ (www.opendemocracy.net/faith-europe_islam/mohammed_3866.jsp)
41. Herbert Berg and Sarah Rollens, ‘The Historical Muḥammad and the Historical Jesus: A Comparison of Scholarly Reinventions and Reinterpretations’, Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 37, 2008, 271-292.
42. Andreas Görke, ‘Prospects and Limits in the Study of the Historical Muhammad’, in N. Boekhoff-Van der Voort et al. (eds), The Transmission and Dynamics of the Textual Sources of Islam (Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. 137-147.

Volume III: Muḥammad in the Muslim tradition

Contents

Acknowledgements

Part 4: Doctrinal issues and Muḥammad’s role in the Muslim tradition

43. Gordon D. Newby, ‘Imitating Muhammad in Two Genres: Mimesis and Problems of Genre in Sīrah and Sunnah’, Medieval Encounters 3, 1997, 266-283.
44. Joseph E. Lowry, ‘The Prophet as Lawgiver and Legal Authority’, in Jonathan E. Brockopp (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 83-102.
45. Miklos Muranyi, ‘The Emergence of Holy Places in Early Islam: On the Prophet’s Track’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 39, 2012, 165-171.
46. Isaiah Goldfeld, ‘The Illiterate Prophet (Nabī Ummī): An Inquiry into the Development of a Dogma in Islamic Tradition’, Der Islam 57, 1980, 58-67.
47. Khalil ʿAthamina, ‘"Al-Nabiyy al-Umiyy": An Inquiry into the Meaning of a Qurʾanic Verse’, Der Islam 69, 1992, 61-80.
48. Sebastian Günther, ‘Muḥammad, the Illiterate Prophet: An Islamic Creed in the Qur’an and Qur’anic Exegesis’, Journal of Qur’anic Studies 4, 2002, 1-26.
49. Simeon Evstatiev, ‘On the Perception of the Khātam Al-Nabiyyīn Doctrine in Arabic Historical Thought: Confirmation or Finality’, in Stefan Leder et al. (eds), Studies in Arabic and Islam. Proceedings of the 19th Congress, Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants, Halle 1998 (Leuven: Peeters, 2002), pp. 455-467.

Part 5: The veneration of Muḥammad

50. Uri Rubin, ‘Pre-Existence and Light - Aspects of the Concept of Nūr Muḥammad’, Israel Oriental Studies 5, 1975, 62–119.
51. Nico Kaptein, ‘Materials for the History of the Prophet Muḥammad’s Birthday Celebration in Mecca’, Der Islam 69, 1992, 193-203.
52. Aviva Schussman, ‘The Legitimacy and Nature of Mawlid al-Nabī (Analysis of a Fatwā)’, Islamic Law and Society 5, 1998, 214–234.
53. Cristina de la Puente, ‘The Prayer Upon the Prophet Muḥammad (Taṣliya): A Manifestation of Islamic Religiosity,’ Medieval Encounters 5, 1999, 121–129.
54. Paula Richman, ‘Veneration of the Prophet Muhammad in an Islamic Piḷḷaittamil’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 113, 1993, 57-74.

Part 6: Muḥammad in Ṣūfī thought and practice

55. Valerie J. Hoffman-Ladd, ‘Devotion to the Prophet and his Family in Egyptian Sufism’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 24, 1992, 615-637.
56. Valerie J. Hoffman, ‘Annihilation in the Messenger of God: The Development of a Sufi Practice’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 31, 1999, 351-369.
57. Nazeer El-Azma, ‘Some Notes on the Impact of the Story of the Miʿrāj in Sufi Literature’, The Muslim World 63, 1973, 93-104.
58. Frederick S. Colby, ‘The Subtleties of the Ascension: Al-Sulamī on the Miʿrāj of the Prophet Muhammad’, Studia Islamica 94, 2002, 167-183.
59. Shahzad Bashir, ‘Muḥammad in Ṣūfī Eyes: Prophetic Legitimacy in Medieval Iran and Central Asia’, in Jonathan E. Brockopp (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 201-225.

Volume IV: Modern Reinterpretations and Western Views

Contents

Acknowledgements

Part 7: Modern Muslim re-interpretations of Muḥammad

60. Earle H.Waugh, ‘Images of Muḥammad in the Work of Iqbal: Tradition and Alterations’, History of Religions 23, 1983, 156-168.
61. Tarif Khalidi, ‘The Hero: Muhammad in Modern Biography’, in Images of Muhammad: Narratives of the Prophet in Islam Across the Centuries (New York: Doubleday, 2009), pp. 241-280.
62. Tarif Khalidi, ‘The Liberator: Muhammad in Contemporary Sira’, in Images of Muhammad: Narratives of the Prophet in Islam Across the Centuries (New York: Doubleday, 2009), pp. 281-297.
63. Ruth Roded, ‘Lessons by a Syrian Islamist from the Life of the Prophet Muhammad’,

Middle Eastern Studies 42, 2006, 855-872.

64. Freek L. Bakker, ‘The Image of Muhammad in The Message, the First and Only Feature Film about the Prophet of Islam’, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 17, 2006, 77-92.
65. Muzaffar Iqbal, ‘Living in the Time of Prophecy: Internalized Sīrah Texts’, Islamic Studies 50, 2011, 193-216.
66. Martin Riexinger, ‘Rendering Muḥammad Human Again: The Prophetology of Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (1703–1792)’, Numen 60, 2013, 103-118.
67. Kecia Ali, ‘"A Beautiful Example": The Prophet Muḥammad as a Model for Muslim Husbands’, Islamic Studies 43, 2004, 273-291.

Part 8: Muḥammad in the views of non-Muslims

68. Ron Buckley, ‘The Burāq: Views from the East and West’, Arabica 60, 2013, 569-601.
69. Krisztina Szilágyi, ‘Muḥammad and the Monk: The Making of the Christian Baḥīra Legend’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 34, 2008, 169-214.
70. Svetlana Luchitskaja, ‘The Image of Muhammad in Latin Chronography of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries’, Journal of Medieval History 26, 2000, 115–126.
71. Stefano Mula, ‘Muhammad and the Saints: The History of the Prophet in the Golden Legend’, Modern Philology 101, 2003, 175-188.
72. W. Montgomery Watt, ‘Carlyle on Muhammad’, Hibbert Journal 53, 1955, 247-254.
73. Ahmad Gunny, ‘Assessment of Material Relating to Prophet Muhammad by Some French-Speaking Writ...