Narratives of Islamic Origins

Download or read book Narratives of Islamic Origins written by Fred McGraw Donner and published by Darwin Press, Incorporated. This book was released on 1998 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Donner (Near Eastern history, Oriental Institute and U. of Chicago) challenges the scholarly assumption that the earliest Muslim believers wanted to write history out of "idle curiosity" and suggests that Islamic historical tradition resulted from a variety of challenges facing the community during the seventh to tenth centuries, C.E. He identifies the intellectual context in which Muslims began to think and write historically; sketches the issues, themes, and forms of the early Islamic historiographical tradition; considers the value of some radically revisionist interpretations of early Islam that have appeared in the past 20 years; and discusses the problem of sources in studying Islamic origins. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR