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Index
Introduction
Navigating this Book
A Brief Geographical Orientation
1. What is the Basis for Traditional Beliefs About the Early Years of Islam?
1.1. The Past as a Battlefield
1.2. Dealing with Sources: Some Basic Historiographical Principles
1.3. Primary and Secondary Historical Sources
1.4. The Place of Oral Tradition in Historiography
1.5. The Islamic Sources under the Lens
1.5.1. The Qur’an as a Historical Source
1.5.2. The Hadiths to the Rescue?
1.5.3. Biographies of Muhammad
1.5.4. Early Islamic Historical Texts and Their Legacy
1.5.5. The Current State of Play: A Puzzling Lack of Critical Engagement
1.6. Not So Silent After All: Finding Alternative Sources
1.7. Chapter Summary
2. The Incredible Vanishing City: Mecca and Pre-Islamic Arabia
2.1. The Centrality of the ‘Mother of all Cities’
2.2. Najran: A Case Study
2.3. Investigating the Evidence for the Ancient Existence of Mecca
2.3.1. Mecca and its Near Neighbors
2.3.2. Mecca and Ancient Imperial Records
2.3.3. Mecca as a great trading city?
2.3.4. Mecca as an Ancient Religious Center?
2.3.5. Could Ptolemy’s ‘Macoraba’ be Mecca?
2.3.6. Psalm 84, ‘The Valley of Baka’ and Mecca
2.4. Chapter Summary
3. Setting the Scene: The Arabian Peninsula at the Dawn of Islam
3.1. The Religious Make-Up of the Arabian Peninsula at the Dawn of Islam
3.1.1. Arabian Paganism
3.1.2. Judaism in the Arabian Peninsula
3.1.3. Christianity in the Arabian Peninsula
3.2. The Arabian Geopolitical Scene at the Dawn of Islam
3.2.1. Arab Tribalism
3.2.2. The Roman Empire and the Arabian Peninsula
3.2.3. The Persian Empire and the Arabian Peninsula
3.3. Chapter Summary
4. Where did Islam Originate? Examining the Islamic Sources
4.1. Geographical Clues in the Qur’an
4.1.1. Linguistic Clues Relating to the Origins of the Qur’an
4.1.2. Geographical References in the Qur'an
4.1.3. Mecca in the Qur'an
4.1.4. Bakka, Mecca and the Possibility of an Alternative Focus for Early Muslim worship
4.1.5. Indirect Geographical References in the Qur'an
4.2. Geographical References in the Hadiths
4.2.1. The Reliability of the Hadiths Revisited
4.2.2. The Holy City of Islam in the Hadiths and Classical Sources
4.2.3. Geographical Clues Related to Place of Composition of the Hadiths
4.2.4. Zoroastrianism and the Rise of Islam
4.2.5. Mesopotamian Judaism and its Influence of Islam
4.3. Chapter Summary
5. Finding Muhammad behind the Shadows
5.1. In Search of the Historical Muhammad
5.2. Muhammad in the Qur’an
5.3. Muhammad in the Hadiths and Traditional Sources
5.3.1. Muhammad as a Prophet
5.3.2. Muhammad’s Family Life and Relationships
5.3.3. Muhammad as a War Leader
5.3.4. Cross Referencing Key Events from Muhammad’s Biography with Recorded History
5.3.5. Muhammad in Contemporary Arabic Sources
5.3.6. Muhammad in Contemporary Non-Arabic Sources
5.4. Chapter Summary
6. The Qur’an: Proof of Islam’s Origin Narrative?
6.1. Examining the Official Account of Qur’anic Origins
6.2. The Traditional Account of Qur’anic Origins under Scrutiny
6.3. A Text Critical Investigation of the Qur’anic Text
6.3.1. Investigating the Earliest Qur’anic Manuscripts (the Uthmanic Mushafs)
6.3.2. Divergence within the Accepted Textual Tradition
6.3.3. The Sana’a Qur’an and the Uthmanic Tradition
6.3.4. What about the Birmingham Folios?
6.3.5. The Hadiths on Qur’anic Completeness
6.3.6. The Crucifixion Verse: Evidence of a Later Addition?
6.4. How did the Qur’an Come into Being?
6.4.1. Syrian Christian Material
6.4.2. Jewish Writings
6.4.3. Extra-Biblical Christian Gospels
6.4.4. Stories, Legends and Myths
6.4.5. Zoroastrian Influence
6.4.6 The Compilation and Editing of the Qur’anic Text
6.5. Chapter Summary
7. The Post-Muhammad Period: Muslim Conquest and Victory?
7.1. Muslim or Arab Conquest?
7.2. Non-Arab Writings on the Arab Conquests
7.3. The Missing Caliphs
7.4. Misdirected Mosques
7.5. The Survival of Paganism
7.6. The Early Umayyad Caliphate: Archaeological and Documentary Sources
7.7. Civil War, the Marwanids and the Emergence of Islam
7.8. The Dome of the Rock: Islam Finally Steps from the Shadows
7.9. Chapter Summary
8. What Happened? Some Tentative Conclusions
8.1. Nabataea: A Forgotten Kingdom Worth Remembering
8.2. Arabian Paganism as the Bedrock of Proto-Islam
8.3. The Arabs and the Superpowers
8.4. A ‘Hijra’, But Not as You Know It
8.5. The Arab-Syriac Encounter
8.6 Proto-Islam and Judaism
8.7. Proto-Islam and Near Eastern Christianities
8.8. In Search of Identity
8.9. Muawiya and Pan-Arab Monotheism
8.10. The Marwanids and the Birth of Islam
8.11. Salvation in the Desert: Why it was Necessary to Invent Mecca
8.12. The Creation of a Scriptural Tradition
8.13. By the Rivers of Babylon: The Final Strand is Added
8.14. Chapter Summary: An Attempt at an Updated History
9. Whereto from Here?
9.1. Commit to Honest, In-Depth Research
9.2. Bring Questions about Islam’s History into the Open
9.3. Challenge the Culture of Fear
9.4. Use Historical Facts to Undermine Islam
9.5. Conclusion: What if the ‘Full Light of History’ is a Mirage?
More from Peter Townsend
Bibliography
Endnotes
Endnotes
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