Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- 1 The Islamic revolution in its environment
- 2 The emergence of Abū Bakr
- 3 ‘Umar and the conquests
- 4 The breakdown of the Madīnan regime
- 5 Mu‘āwiya and the second civil war
- 6 The age of Ḥajjāj
- 7 Moderate reform, radical reform and reaction: the reigns of Sulaymān, ‘Umar II and Yazīd II
- 8 Hishām: survival of the empire
- 9 The collapse of the Marwānids
- 10 The end of an era
- Works cited
- Index
1 - The Islamic revolution in its environment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- 1 The Islamic revolution in its environment
- 2 The emergence of Abū Bakr
- 3 ‘Umar and the conquests
- 4 The breakdown of the Madīnan regime
- 5 Mu‘āwiya and the second civil war
- 6 The age of Ḥajjāj
- 7 Moderate reform, radical reform and reaction: the reigns of Sulaymān, ‘Umar II and Yazīd II
- 8 Hishām: survival of the empire
- 9 The collapse of the Marwānids
- 10 The end of an era
- Works cited
- Index
Summary
It is difficult to write objectively about the rise of Islam or, for that matter, of any other religion. Leaving aside personal convictions, the historian is usually confronted with a great deal of obscurity about the origins of the religion concerned. If any details about the early development of the religion survive, they are; in most cases, highly coloured and often exaggerated, so that it is difficult to distinguish fact from myth. Islam is more fortunate than Christianity in so far as we have more information, at least about its founder. Yet the material we have about the condition of Arabia at this time is so tantalizingly fragmentary that it does not allow us fully to understand the history of this period. Much has been written about the life and career of Muḥammad, and every detail has been adequately scrutinized and fully analysed to the extent that we are now generally assured about the basic facts of his activities. Nevertheless, these facts by themselves do not explain all these activities nor do they make it any easier to understand his motives. Of course any explanation is subject to the interpretation of these activities and it is only natural that historians should differ in such interpretation.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Islamic HistoryA New Interpretation, pp. 1 - 15Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1971