Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam

Shahab Ahmed

Published by Harvard University Press 2017

Before Orthodoxy

The Satanic Verses in Early Islam

Shahab Ahmed

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674977372

Overview
Contents

About this book

A controversial episode in the life of the Prophet Muhammad concerns an incident in which he allegedly mistook words suggested by Satan as divine revelation. Muslims now universally deny that the Satanic verses incident took place. But Muslims did not always hold this view. Shahab Ahmed uses this case to explore how religions establish truth.

Reviews

[Ahmed] was not concerned with whether the Satanic Verses incident really occurred or not. His topic is instead what people believed to have occurred. The results are all the more perceptive (and valuable) for that.
-- Bruce Fudge Times Literary Supplement

[Ahmed] offers the most systematic, critical study of an especially important tradition from early Islamic history, the so-called incident of the Satanic verses.
-- S. J. Shoemaker Choice

The battle over Islamic orthodoxy continues to rage on today, making this work of contemporary relevance…A valuable piece of in-depth scholarship on the formation of the early Islamic community and its discourses about Muslim beliefs and practices.
-- Publishers Weekly

This has been a long anticipated book, and the wait has been worth it. It is an excellent study of a complicated theological problem in Islamic religious history that has persisted due to the nature of the sources and the role it plays in defining and redefining the character of Muhammad and the nature of revelation. Both a study on what is arguably one of the most fascinating stories about Muhammad and a primer to the field of Islamic studies and the debate on early sources, this will be an instant classic.
-- Walid Saleh, University of Toronto

Well organized and clearly written, this work is based upon an exhaustive examination of the sources. The analysis is meticulous, the book sober in its conclusions. Ahmed’s goal is to explain one aspect of the formation of Islamic orthodoxy by investigating ‘how truth happens.’ He makes an important distinction between the three types of source material that make up historical memory discourse: sirah or biography; tafsir or Quranic exegesis; and hadith or prophetic exemplum. Ahmed asks good questions—and he answers them in a convincing manner.
-- David Powers, Cornell University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction. How Does Truth Happen? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. How to Read the Earliest Sources? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
2. The Earliest Narrative Reports (Riwāyahs) and Their Transmitters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
3. Why Did the Early Muslim Community Accept the Satanic Verses Incident as Truth? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	327
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	335

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 352

eBook

Published: April 24, 2017
ISBN: 9780674977372