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Abbasid Literature, Arabic Literature, Late Antique and Byzantine History, Medieval Islam, Shi'ism, Islamic Studies, and 46 moreEschatology and Apocalypticism, Qur'anic Studies, Apocrypha/Pseudepigrapha, Hadith Studies, Jewish Messianism, Umayyad Literature, History, Islamic Law, Tafsir, Umayyads (Islamic History), Ismailism, History of prisons, Biographical Literature of the Prophet Muhammad (Sirah Rasul Allah), Islamic Esotericism, Prophets, Gender, Intellectual History, Urban History, History and Memory, Ibn Saba, History of Prisons In Islam, Analysing Muslim Traditions, Religion, Medieval History, Medieval Studies, Middle East Studies, Arabic Language and Linguistics, Sufism, Late Antiquity, Islamic History, Islamic Philosophy, Near Eastern Studies, Kalam (Islamic Theology), Medieval Islamic History, Early Islam, Syriac Studies, Arab Christian Studies, Arabic Manuscripts, The Caliph and the Heretic, Maghazi Sirah Waqidi, Early Islamic History, Islamic Intellectual History, History of Philosophy, Byzantine Studies, Biology, and English edit
In Muhammad and the Empires of Faith, Sean W. Anthony demonstrates how reading non-Muslim and Muslim sources in tandem with a critical eye can breathe new life into the historical study of Muhammad and the world that his message... more
In Muhammad and the Empires of Faith, Sean W. Anthony demonstrates how reading non-Muslim and Muslim sources in tandem with a critical eye can breathe new life into the historical study of Muhammad and the world that his message transformed. By placing these sources within the intellectual and cultural world of Late Antiquity, Anthony offers a fresh assessment of the earliest sources for Muhammad’s life, taking readers on a grand tour of the available evidence, and suggests what new insights stand to be gained from the techniques and methods pioneered by countless scholars over the decades in a variety of fields. Muhammad and the Empires of Faith offers both an authoritative introduction to the multilayered traditions surrounding the life of Muhammad and a compelling exploration of how these traditions interacted with the broader landscape of Late Antiquity.
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What historical continuity, if any, existed between the practice of crucifixion in the early Islamic polity and crucifixion as practiced by the Byzantines in the Late Roman empire and by the Sasanids in Persia? Crucifixion and Death as... more
What historical continuity, if any, existed between the practice of crucifixion in the early Islamic polity and crucifixion as practiced by the Byzantines in the Late Roman empire and by the Sasanids in Persia? Crucifixion and Death as Spectacle explores how the first caliphal dynasty of early Islam, the Umayyads, employed crucifixion in its sundry forms to punish brigands and heretics and to humiliate rebels and enemies, and how, while doing so, the Umayyads drew upon a late antique legacy of punitive practices associated with crucifixion in the Late Roman and Sasanid Persian worlds. Like their Roman and Persian predecessors, the Umayyads wielded crucifixion, and thus the symbolism of violence against the body, to attest to their impunity as caliphs and the legitimacy of their rule. Yet, as this study also argues, this is only one side of the story. Dissidents and political rivals mobilized stories of crucified rebels and martyrs, as told and memorialized by Christians and Muslims alike, against the Umayyads in order to contest and subvert the sublimation of crucifixion as an indubitable symbol of the caliphs' use of legitimate violence, and succeeded in propagating alternative religious and political ideologies of their own.
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This book is an examination of the traditions and legends concerning early Islam’s first and most infamous heretic, the Yemenite Jew known as ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sabaʾ. Tracing the evolution and transformation of the many stories and... more
This book is an examination of the traditions and legends concerning early Islam’s first and most infamous heretic, the Yemenite Jew known as ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sabaʾ. Tracing the evolution and transformation of the many stories and narratives about Ibn Sabaʾ as adapted by Sunnī and Shīʿī scholars alike, this work attempts for the first time to give a comprehensive account of the formation of the image of Ibn Sabaʾ as the quintessential heretic of Islam’s early years. It also offers a new interpretation of the historical importance and beliefs of Ibn Sabaʾ and those early Shīʿa reviled as his followers, the Sabaʾīya. The end result is a revolutionary, new portrait of Shīʿite origins and early Islamic sectarianism.
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The intriguing textual history of Q. Maryam 19:19 remains neglected in modern scholarship. This study offers an analysis of this textual history in light of new insights from the codicology of early Qurʾan manuscripts. Further, it puts... more
The intriguing textual history of Q. Maryam 19:19 remains neglected in modern scholarship. This study offers an analysis of this textual history in light of new insights from the codicology of early Qurʾan manuscripts. Further, it puts forward suggestions for how one might interpret the verse and its rival readings in light of its textual history and motifs associated with the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary in the homiletic literature of Syriac Christianity in Near Eastern Late Antiquity.
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According to the standard accounts of the codification of the Qurʾān, the third caliph ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān compiled the archetypal codex (muṣḥaf) that serves as the authoritative ancestor for all copies of the Qurʾān. ʿUthmān's standardized... more
According to the standard accounts of the codification of the Qurʾān, the third caliph ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān compiled the archetypal codex (muṣḥaf) that serves as the authoritative ancestor for all copies of the Qurʾān. ʿUthmān's standardized codex includes 114 Sūras in total, but the caliph allegedly excluded two additional Sūras that appeared in the pre-ʿUthmānic codex of Ubayy b. Kaʿb, a Companion of the Prophet much revered for his knowledge of the Qurʾānic revelation. This study compiles the evidence for the exclusion and existence of these two non-canonical Sūras, collates the earliest testimonies to the text of each Sūra, and offers an evaluation of the two Sūras' historicity and their relationship to the early Qurʾānic corpus.
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In this response to Prof. Hawting’s Presidential Address, I offer my views on the centrality of the Meccan sanctuary to the message of the Qur'an in the Meccan period, its subsequent salience in the Medinan period, and the evidence for... more
In this response to Prof. Hawting’s Presidential Address, I offer my views on the centrality of the Meccan sanctuary to the message of the Qur'an in the Meccan period, its subsequent salience in the Medinan period, and the evidence for its continued importance for the Muslims of the seventh century. Reverence for the Meccan sanctuary, I argue, was pivotal to the early community’s self-understanding as a discrete community, both distinct from the “People of the Book” (ahl al-kitab) and as a successor community with a shared biblical lineage. I contend, moreover, that reverence for a sanctuary in Mecca and its attendant rites was regarded as a touchstone feature of the religiosity of the newly hegemonic conquerors from Arabia by the earliest contemporary observers of the conquests and their aftermath.
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A review article of Shahab Ahmed’s posthumously published monograph, Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam (HUP, 2017)
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The works of the third/ninth-century historian and geographer Ibn al-Wāḍiḥ al-Yaʿqūbī have long served as an indispensable source in the modern study of Islamic historiography, but nagging questions about alYaʿqūbī’s purportedly Shiʿite... more
The works of the third/ninth-century historian and geographer Ibn al-Wāḍiḥ al-Yaʿqūbī have long served as an indispensable source in the modern study of Islamic historiography, but nagging questions about alYaʿqūbī’s
purportedly Shiʿite identity have continued to bedevil modern attempts to interpret his works. Thisessay re-visits the question of al-Yaʿqūbī’s Shiʿite identity in of light of new data and a re-evaluation of the old,and it questions what evidence there exists for considering him a Shiʿite as well as what heuristic value, if any, labeling him as a Shiʿite holds for modern scholars who read his works.
purportedly Shiʿite identity have continued to bedevil modern attempts to interpret his works. Thisessay re-visits the question of al-Yaʿqūbī’s Shiʿite identity in of light of new data and a re-evaluation of the old,and it questions what evidence there exists for considering him a Shiʿite as well as what heuristic value, if any, labeling him as a Shiʿite holds for modern scholars who read his works.
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Biblical prooftexts for the prophethood of Muḥammad play a prominent role in early Muslim interest in the Bible. This study re-examines the earliest known attempt by Muslims to find such a biblical prooftext in the New Testament – the... more
Biblical prooftexts for the prophethood of Muḥammad play a prominent role in early Muslim interest in the Bible. This study re-examines the earliest known attempt by Muslims to find such a biblical prooftext in the New Testament – the Arabic version of Jesus’s sermon on the ‘advocate/comforter’ (Gk. paráklētos) in John 15:23-16 found in Ibn Isḥāq’s Kitāb al-Maghāzī. Key to understanding Ibn Isḥāq’s adaptation of the Johannine text, this study argues, is the Christian Palestinian Aramaic Gospel behind it as well as the climate of late-antique apocalypticism and messianism out of which Ibn Isḥāq’s distinctively Islamic version emerged. This study concludes with an interpretation of Qurʾān 61:6, which appears to claim that Jesus prophesied a future prophet named Aḥmad.
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New Testament, Arabic Language and Linguistics, Aramaic, Bible Translation, Qur'anic Studies, and 14 moreBible Translations, Quranic Studies, Late Antiquity, Islamic Studies, Abbasid History, Syriac Studies, Hadith Studies, Umayyads (Islamic History), Biographical Literature of the Prophet Muhammad (Sirah Rasul Allah), Early Islam, Jewish Messianism, Gospel of John, Bible in Arabic, and Biography of the Prophet Muhammad
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The biography of the eighth-century theologian John Damascene has long posed seemingly intractable problems of historical interpretation for modern scholars, but recent research into his writings and the composition of the hagiographical... more
The biography of the eighth-century theologian John Damascene has long posed seemingly intractable problems of historical interpretation for modern scholars, but recent research into his writings and the composition of the hagiographical traditions about his life have made new insights into his biography possible. This essay aims to expand upon these recent contributions by reviewing the evidence for the outlines of John Damascene’s biography that can be gleaned from an examination of the history of his family, the Manṣūrs, and their place in Umayyad Syria during the seventh to eighth centuries C.E.
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One the earliest non-Islamic testimonies to the existence of the Prophet Muḥammad can be found within the Byzantine apologetic tract known as the Doc-trina Iacobi nuper baptizati . Frequently dated by modern historians to as early as... more
One the earliest non-Islamic testimonies to the existence of the Prophet Muḥammad can be found within the Byzantine apologetic tract known as the
Doc-trina Iacobi nuper baptizati
. Frequently dated by modern historians to as early as July 634 , the tract curiously asserts that the prophet who had appeared “among the Saracens” claimed to possess “the keys to paradise.” This essay investigates this claim and the prevalence of the “keys to paradise” motif in late-antique Chris-tian literature and the early Islamic tradition to provide a new evaluation of the text’s place in and importance to the historiography of Islamic origins.
Doc-trina Iacobi nuper baptizati
. Frequently dated by modern historians to as early as July 634 , the tract curiously asserts that the prophet who had appeared “among the Saracens” claimed to possess “the keys to paradise.” This essay investigates this claim and the prevalence of the “keys to paradise” motif in late-antique Chris-tian literature and the early Islamic tradition to provide a new evaluation of the text’s place in and importance to the historiography of Islamic origins.
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Recent scholarship on the interpretation of Sibghat Allah (lit., ‘the dye of God’) in Qur’an 2:138 has trended in two directions. A moderate trend views the word Sibgha as merely a calque of the Syriac word for baptism, masbu‘ita. Another... more
Recent scholarship on the interpretation of Sibghat Allah (lit., ‘the dye of God’) in Qur’an 2:138 has trended in two directions. A moderate trend views the word Sibgha as merely a calque of the Syriac word for baptism, masbu‘ita. Another recent, more radical approach regards Sibgha as a product of the corrupting vicissitudes of the Qur’an’s textual
transmission and, therefore, has proposed alternative, text-critical renderings of the Quranic ductus itself. This article offers a third —hopefully more compelling — reading, wherein the phrase ‘the dye of God’ is read in light of similar baptismal metaphors scattered throughout the Christian literature of Near Eastern Late Antiquity.
transmission and, therefore, has proposed alternative, text-critical renderings of the Quranic ductus itself. This article offers a third —hopefully more compelling — reading, wherein the phrase ‘the dye of God’ is read in light of similar baptismal metaphors scattered throughout the Christian literature of Near Eastern Late Antiquity.
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This study highlights a hitherto neglected trope of Muslim apocalyptic literature—namely, that there awaits the future Mahdī in a region known as al-Ṭālaqān a great treasure that will gain him a mighty army to aid him to triumph in the... more
This study highlights a hitherto neglected trope of Muslim apocalyptic literature—namely, that there awaits the future Mahdī in a region known as al-Ṭālaqān a great treasure that will gain him a mighty army to aid him to triumph in the final battle against evil. Tracing the trope’s origin in Zoroastrian apocalypticism and its subsequent dissemination in a wide array of Muslim apocalyptic traditions, this paper argues that this apocalyptic trope ultimately entered into Muslim apocalypticism—in particular Šīʿite apocalypticism—during a Zaydī revolt against the ʿAbbasids led by the Ḥasanid Yaḥyā b. ʿAbdallāh in the year 176/792. The paper then explores how the revolt of Yaḥyā b. ʿAbdallāh shaped the function of the ‘treasures of al-Ṭālaqān’ trope in Muslim apocalypticism and how Yaḥyā’s personality and the revolt he inspired continued to leave an indelible imprint on Imāmī apocalypticism thereafter.
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ʿAbdallāh ibn Sabaʾ is a figure generally regarded as Islam's first heretic by Sunnī scholars and also vilified by Shīʿī scholars. In this article an anonymous, esoteric work known as Umm al-Kitāb is examined as it contains an exceptional... more
ʿAbdallāh ibn Sabaʾ is a figure generally regarded as Islam's first heretic by Sunnī scholars and also vilified by Shīʿī scholars. In this article an anonymous, esoteric work known as Umm al-Kitāb is examined as it contains an exceptional narrative that adopts a strikingly sympathetic approach to Ibn Sabaʾ. It is also argued that the work's unique take on the Ibn Sabaʾ legend sheds considerable light on the date and elusive provenance of this early Shīʿī text.
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This study examines the historical reports on the 'false prophet (kaddāb)' known as al-Hāritb. Sa'īd from both a historical and literary perspective. From the historical perspective, I investigate how a Syrian mawlā began a prophetic... more
This study examines the historical reports on the 'false prophet (kaddāb)' known as al-Hāritb. Sa'īd from both a historical and literary perspective. From the historical perspective, I investigate how a Syrian mawlā began a prophetic movement in the Umayyad mosque of Damascus during the caliphate of 'Abd al-Malik, which subsequently spread throughout the caliph's army. My study then follows the second phase of al-Hārit's career in which he flees Damascus to initiate an underground movement in Jerusalem where, once uncovered and captured, the would-be prophet is crucified on a cross. By examining al-Hārit's alleged associations and followers, such as Umm al-Dardā' al-Suġrā and Ġaylān al-Dimašqī, I attempt to gauge the scope and subsequent influence of al-Hārit's brief prophetic career. From the literary perspective, my study argues that one of the principal transmitters of the ahbār on al-Hārit's prophetic career, Abū Bakr b. Abī Haytama (d. 279/892), considerably doctored the early accounts in order to fashion a parodic, expanded narrative largely of his own making. I thus contend that Ibn Abī Haytama, by culling tropes and anecdotes from sīra- and qisas-material on the lives of Muhammad and Jesus, constructed a biography of al-Hārit that cast him as a farcical version of a genuine prophet
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The discovery and publication of the manuscript of the Kitāb al-ridda wal-futū of the 2nd/8th century historian Sayf b. ‘Umar al-Tamīmī brought with it the potential for profound new insights into the Sayfian historical corpus as well as... more
The discovery and publication of the manuscript of the Kitāb al-ridda wal-futū of the 2nd/8th century historian Sayf b. ‘Umar al-Tamīmī brought with it the potential for profound new insights into the Sayfian historical corpus as well as into the origins of Islamic historiography more generally speaking. The present study examines a new, previously unknown Sayfian narrative brought to light by this manuscript concerning the origins of Christanity and its corruption by Paul the apostle. After demonstrating how Sayf employs this extended narrative as a prolegomena for his considerably more (in)famous narrative of the early heretic Ibn Saba'/Ibn al-Sawdā' – a scheming Jew whom he blames for the emergence of Muslim sectarianism in the caliphate of ‘Uthmān b. ‘Affān – this essay demonstrates that Sayf composed his narrative of early Christianity from a mélange of sources (qur'ānic, exegetical, and even Jewish). Finally, the study concludes with a re-evaluation of Sayf's methods and corpus in light of his narrative of Christian origins.
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Just out now: the third volume of the Journal of the International Qur'anic Studies Association with contributions by Sean Anthony, David Bertaina, Adam Bursi, Zohar Hadromi-Allouche and Gerald Hawting (edited by Nicolai Sinai with the... more
Just out now: the third volume of the Journal of the International Qur'anic Studies Association with contributions by Sean Anthony, David Bertaina, Adam Bursi, Zohar Hadromi-Allouche and Gerald Hawting (edited by Nicolai Sinai with the assistance of Saqib Hussain; founding editors: Michael Pregill and Vanessa De Gifis). See <https://lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jiqsa>.
