Editing History of Islam (section)

==Early sources and historiography ==
{{Main|Historiography of early Islam|Sīrah}}
{{Further|Revisionist school of Islamic studies|Islamic archaeology|Classical Islam}}
{{history of religion |expanded=religions}}
The study of the earliest periods in Islamic history is made difficult by a lack of sources.{{sfn|Donner|2010|p=628}} Most Islamic history was [[Oral tradition|transmitted orally]] until after the rise of the [[Abbasid Caliphate]].<ref>{{Harvtxt|Vansina|1985}}</ref> One of the most important [[Historiography of early Islam|historiographical sources]] for the origins of [[Islam]] is the work of the [[List of Muslim historians|Muslim historian]] [[Al-Tabari|Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī]] (839–923 CE).{{sfn|Robinson|2010|p=6}} Differing views about how to deal with the scarce sources has led to the development of four different approaches to the history of early Islam. All four methods have some level of support today:{{sfn|Donner|2010|p=633}}<ref>See also {{harvnb|Hughes|2013|pp=6–7}}, who links the practice of source and tradition (or [[Form criticism|form]]) criticism as one approach.</ref> 

* The ''descriptive'' method uses the outlines of Islamic traditions, adjusted for the stories of miracles and faith-centred claims within those sources.{{sfn|Donner|2010|pp=629, 633}} [[Edward Gibbon]] (1737–1794) and [[Gustav Weil]] (1808–1889) represent some of the first historians following the descriptive method.  
* In the ''[[Source criticism|source critical]]'' method, scholars compare all available sources in order to identify which informants to the sources are weak and thereby to distinguish spurious material.{{sfn|Donner|2010|p=630}} The work of [[William Montgomery Watt]] (1909–2006) and that of [[Wilferd Madelung]] (1930–2023) exemplify source-critical study.  
* In the ''[[Tradition criticism|tradition critical]]'' method, the sources are believed to be based on oral traditions with unclear origins and transmission history, and so are treated very cautiously.{{sfn|Donner|2010|p=631}} [[Ignác Goldziher]] (1850–1921) pioneered the tradition critical method, and [[Uri Rubin]] (1944–2021) continued this approach.
* The ''[[Revisionist school of Islamic studies|skeptical]]'' method doubts nearly all of the material in the traditional sources, regarding any possible historical core as too difficult to decipher from distorted and fabricated material.{{sfn|Donner|2010|p=632}} An early example of the sceptical method was the work of [[John Wansbrough]] (1928–2002).
[[File:Rashidun_coin_Pseudo-Byzantine_types.jpg|thumb|230px|right|Coin in use during the [[Rashidun Caliphate]] (661–750 CE). [[Byzantine coinage|Pseudo-Byzantine type]] with depictions of the [[List of Byzantine emperors|Byzantine Emperor]] [[Constans II]] holding the [[Christian cross|cross-tipped staff]] and ''[[globus cruciger]]''.]]
Nowadays, the popularity of the different methods employed varies on the scope of the studies produced. Overview treatments of the history of early Islam tend to take the descriptive approach. Scholars who look at the beginnings of Islam in depth generally follow the source-critical and tradition-critical methods.{{sfn|Donner|2010|p=633}} The quality of historical sources improves after the 8th century CE.{{sfn|Robinson|2010|p=9}} Those sources which treated earlier times with a large temporal and cultural gap now begin to give accounts which are more contemporaneous, the quality of genre of available historical accounts improves, and new documentary sources—such as official documents, correspondence and poetry—appear.{{sfn|Robinson|2010|p=9}} For the time prior to the beginning of Islam—in the 6th century CE—sources are superior as well, if still of mixed quality. In particular, the sources covering the [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian realm of influence]] in the 6th century CE are poor, while the sources for [[Subdivisions of the Byzantine Empire|Byzantine provinces]] at the time are of a respectable quality, complemented by [[Syriac Christian]] sources for Syria and Iraq.{{sfn|Robinson|2010|pp=4-5}}

Until the early 1970s,<ref name=FMDQiRS2008:30>[[#FMDQiRS2008|Donner, "Quran in Recent Scholarship", 2008]]: p.30</ref> [[Kafir|Non-Muslim]] scholars of [[Islamic studies]]—while not accepting mythical accounts, such as [[Miracle|divine intervention]]—did accept its origin story in most of its details.<ref name=THItSotS2012:45>[[#THItSotS2012|Holland, ''In the Shadow of the Sword'', 2012]]: p.45</ref><ref name=FMDQiRS2008:29>[[#FMDQiRS2008|Donner, "Quran in Recent Scholarship", 2008]]: p.29</ref> 
Thereafter, historians of the [[revisionist school of Islamic studies]] began to use relevant [[archaeology]], [[epigraphy]], [[numismatics]], and contemporary non-Arabic literature<ref name=YDNJKMQtIS2000:420>[[#YDNJKMQtIS2000|Nevo & Koren, "Methodological Approaches to Islamic Studies", 2000]]: p.420</ref> to crosscheck writings from 150 to 250 years after Muhammad.<ref name=YDNJKMQtIS2000:422-6>[[#YDNJKMQtIS2000|Nevo & Koren, "Methodological Approaches to Islamic Studies", 2000]]: p.422-6</ref> The school included scholars such as [[John Wansbrough]] and his students [[Andrew Rippin]], [[Norman Calder]], [[G. R. Hawting]], [[Patricia Crone]], and [[Michael Cook (historian)|Michael Cook]], as well as [[Günter Lüling]], [[Yehuda D. Nevo]], and [[Christoph Luxenberg]].<ref name=GSRQSaIC2008:8>[[#GSRQSaIC2008|Reynolds, "Quranic studies and its controversies", 2008]]: p.8</ref>

[[File:Map of the Three Arabias Excerpted Partly from the Arab of Nubia Partly from Several Other Authors.png|upright=1.2|thumb|Non-Islamic testimonies about Muhammad's life describe him as the leader of the [[Saracens]],<ref>"Chapter 1. "A Prophet Has Appeared, Coming with the Saracens": Muhammad’s Leadership during the Conquest of Palestine According to Seventh- and Eighth-Century Sources". The Death of a Prophet: The End of Muhammad's Life and the Beginnings of Islam, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012, pp. 18-72. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812205138.18</ref> believed to be descendants of [[Ishmael]], that lived in the [[Arabian Peninsula in the Roman era|Roman-era provinces]] of ''[[Arabia Petraea]]'' (West) and ''[[Arabia Deserta]]'' (North).]]
These Revisionist schools argue that:
* [[Mecca]] was not a settlement, nor an important commercial center, for thousands of years before Islam—as is claimed in traditional Islamic sources. In addition, [[Historical reliability of the Quran|geographical descriptions in the Quran]] and [[Hadith|''ḥadīth'' literature]] don't match with the location of Mecca. Rather, these sources point to somewhere in north-western Arabia, e.g. [[Petra, Jordan|Petra]] in [[Jordan]]<ref>Patricia Crone / Michael Cook: ''Hagarism'' (1977) pp. 22-24; Patricia Crone: ''Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam'' (1987); and the private researcher Dan Gibson: ''Quranic Geography'' (2011)</ref> as Islamic origin.
* Islam did not originate among [[Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia|polytheistic Arab Pagans]], but in a milieu where Jewish and Christian texts were well-known in the [[Pre-Islamic Arabia|pre-Islamic]] [[Arabian peninsula]]. The "[[Kafir|infidels]]" ({{langx | ar | Kāfirūn}}) described in the Quran were not polytheistic Arab Pagans but rather [[Jewish tribes of Arabia|Jews]] and [[Arab Christians|Christians]] in northern Arabia who, according to the traditional Islamic narrative, had polemically deviated from [[monotheism]].<ref>G. R. Hawting: ''The Idea of Idolatry and the Rise of Islam: From Polemic to History'' (1999); Fred Donner: ''Muhammad and the Believers. At the Origins of Islam'' (2010) p. 59</ref> In the early period of Islam, Jews were regarded as "[[Mumin|believers]]" ({{langx | ar | Muʼminūn}}) and considered a part of the {{lang | ar | [[Ummah]]}}. Anti-Jewish narratives, such as the story about the [[History of the Jews under Muslim rule|massacre of the Jewish tribe by Muslims]] in 627 CE after the [[Siege of Banu Qurayza]], appeared in traditional Islamic sources after [[Islamic–Jewish relations|Islam split from Judaism]], long after [[Death of Muhammad|Muhammad's death]] (632 CE).<ref>Fred Donner: ''Muhammad and the Believers. At the Origins of Islam'' (2010) pp. 68 ff.; cf. also Hans Jansen: Mohammed (2005/7) pp. 311-317 (German edition 2008)</ref>
* The period that is today called early Islamic history was probably not an Islamic, religiously-motivated conquest but a [[secular]] Arab invasion.<ref>Robert G. Hoyland: ''In God's Path. The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire'' (2015)</ref>
* The [[Umayyad Caliphate]], and especially its fifth Caliph [[Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan|ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān]] (647–705, {{reign | 685 | 705}} CE), shaped the Islamic narrative to form a distinctive Islamic-Arab identity.<ref>Donner, ''Muhammad and the Believers. At the Origins of Islam'' (Harvard University Press; 2010)  {{ISBN|978-0-674-05097-6}}</ref> The word ''[[Islam|Islām]]'' does not appear in the records of ibn Marwān's construction of the [[Dome of the Rock]], and early Muslims referred to themselves simply as "[[Mumin|believers]]". Coins containing symbols of various religions ([[fire altar]]<ref>As the Arabs of the Ḥejāz had used the [[Dirham|drahms]] of the [[Sasanian coinage|Sasanian style]], the only silver coinage in the world at that time, it was natural for them to leave many of the Sasanian mints in operation, striking coins like those of the [[List of monarchs of the Sasanian Empire|Persian Emperors]] in every detail, except for the addition of brief Arabic inscriptions, such as the ''[[Basmala|bismillāh]]'' in the margins: https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/coins-and-coinage-</ref> and [[Christian cross]]) were minted under the Caliphs. Ibn Marwān also plays an important role in the [[History of the Quran|reorganization of the Quranic text]].<ref>Patricia Crone / Michael Cook: ''Hagarism'' (1977) p. 29; Yehuda D. Nevo: ''Crossroads to Islam: The Origins of the Arab Religion and the Arab State'' (2003) pp. 410-413; Karl-Heinz Ohlig (Hrsg.): ''Der frühe Islam. Eine historisch-kritische Rekonstruktion anhand zeitgenössischer Quellen'' (2007) pp. 336 ff.</ref> 
* Almost all of the traditional texts on the beginnings of Islam were written during the [[Abbasid Caliphate]] (750–1258 CE) and through these fabricated texts, the Abbasids tried to legitimize their own rule.<ref>Patricia Crone: ''Slaves on Horses. The Evolution of the Islamic Polity'' (1980) pp. 7, 12, 15; also: Hans Jansen: ''Mohammed'' (2005/7)</ref>