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205 dependent on the Quraan. These sources, which were written considerably later than the Quraan, appear to have been written in large part to explain the Quraan. Moreover, the biography of the Prophet as preserved in these sources finds no confirmation in non-Islamic sources from the time of Muhammad’s life. The writings of non-Arabic cultures (Greek, Syriac, Ethiopic, Persian, and so on) of the pre-Islamic Middle East mention neither the pagan Arabs of Mecca (who were supposed to have been international traders) nor the Jews of Medina. They do not mention the great events of Muhammad’s life, even those events that involve the surrounding region (such as the emigration of Muslims to Ethiopia, or the sending of emissaries to the leaders of the In the course of this book,it has become apparent that the question of Islam’s emergence is far from settled. Earlier generations of critical scholars,following medieval Islamic historical sources, generally thought of Islam as a traditionthatemergedinreactiontoasortof vulgar Arab paganism. Today, however, an increasing number of scholars, following the Quraan, think of Islam as a tradition that emerged in conversation with the earlier monotheistic religious traditions of the Middle East, and in particular with Christianity. Indeed, it now seems that the story of Islam’s emergence involves Christianity to a surprising degree. This development reflects in part the growth of a scholarly conviction that the medieval Islamic historical sources are Conclusion v The Emergence of islam 206 empires). Thus there is reason to doubt the traditional Islamic biography of Muhammad. In light of these questions, it now appears that the Quraan itself is the most important historical document for the rise of Islam. And while the Quraan is not a book that shares much explicit information (indeed, it rarely gives even the names of the people and places of its day), its religious message allows us to develop a general idea, at least, of the context in which Islam emerged. The Quraan’s great concern with a transcendent God, and in particular its refutation of the Christian teaching of the incarnation, suggests that Islam was first preached in a context where Christian debates over theology and Christology were a topic of general interest . The Quraan’s presentation of Abraham as the model of its own Prophet and its emphasis on the Arabic language suggests that the emergence of Islam was connected with a conviction that the Arabs are the descendants of Abraham no less than the Jews. Of course, from the perspective of most Muslims there is no reason to doubt the traditional biography of the Prophet. While both Sunni and Shiuite Muslims concede that some of the traditions in the medieval works on Muhammad’s life are inauthentic, they also insist that these works contain a core of authentic traditions (although Sunnis and Shiuites disagree over exactly which traditions ) that were passed down by a rigorous process of oral transmission. Moreover, those traditions with precise reportsonthewordsordeedsof theProphet— that is, the hadith—are to most Muslims more than an important source of historical information . They are also a source of revelation. By the ninth century a conviction emerged among Muslim scholars (in part through the influence of Shafiui) that Muhammad was both impeccable and infallible, and therefore that authentic reports of his words or deeds have a religious authority no less than the Quraan itself. This conviction would fundamentally shape the further development of Islam. Indeed the rulings of sharia are based more often on the hadith than the Quraan (a book with few practical instructions). As we saw in part 3 of this book,the sharia is at the center of the ideology of Sunni Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Jamaat-e Islami. These movements, inspired in part by the teaching of medieval Muslim scholars such as Ibn Taymiyya, insist that Muhammad and the early caliphs successfully established an Islamic state faithful to the sharia, and they argue that this state should be the model for Islamic states today. Through the influence of Ayatollah Khomeini and his idea of wilayat al-faqih,Shiuite Muslims in Iran and elsewhere have come to accept a similar idea (even if they do not accept the legitimacy of the first three caliphs). In general, the concern with sharia in the Islamic world is today widespread. The remarkable multiplication of online fatwas seems to testify to this concern. Some Muslims today are dismayed by the sharia-minded nature of contemporary Islam...

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