Religion Studies: Islam: Prophet Muhammed

About Muhammad is a vital compilation of extracts, each by Western writers, which provides a well informed and beautiful insight into the mission, heritage and legacy of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. In recent years there have been many misunderstandings about the reactions of Muslims to public abuse and ridicule of Muhammad through the media. This book has arrived at an auspicious time and allows the reader to understand who Muhammad was, not just as a spiritual leader for Muslims, but as a diplomat and emissary for mankind in general. By understanding Muhammad, the reader can better understand the respect that Muslims have for him, and the Muslim mind in general. This book is essential reading for anyone in the media, education, politics, religious studies, history, and where they may interact with Muslims, contribute to Muslim projects, or work in Muslim countries or organisations. It will be equally beneficial to politicians, teachers, lecturers, historians, and the general reader.

Henry Stubbe (1632-1676) was an extraordinary English scholar who challenged his contemporaries by writing about Islam as a monotheistic revelation in continuity with Judaism and Christianity. His major work, The Originall & Progress of Mahometanism, was the first English text to document the Prophet Muhammad's life positively, celebrate the Qur'an as a divine revelation, and praise the Muslim toleration of Christians, undermining a long legacy of European prejudice and hostility. Nabil Matar, a leading scholar of Islamic-British relations, standardizes Stubbe's text and situates it within England's theological and intellectual climate in the seventeenth century. He shows how, to draw a historical portrait of Muhammad, Stubbe embraced travelogues, Latin commentaries, studies on Jewish customs and Scripture, and, most important, Arabic chronicles, many written by medieval Christian Arabs who had lived in the midst of the Islamic polity. No European writer before or for a long time after Stubbe produced anything similar to what he wrote about Muhammad the "great Prophet," Ali the "gallant" advocate, and the "standing miracle" of the Qur'an. Stubbe's book therefore makes a unique contribution to the study of the representation of Islam in Western thought.

Muhammad b. ¿Umar al-Waqidi was a Muslim scholar, born in Medina in the 1st Century. Of his several writings the most significant is the Kitab al-Maghazi, one of the earliest standard histories of the life of the Prophet. Translated into English for the first time, Rizwi Faizer makes available this key text to a new, English-speaking audience. It includes an "Introduction" authored jointly by Rizwi Faizer and Andrew Rippin and a carefully prepared index. The book deals with the events of the Prophet¿s life from the time of his emigration from Mecca to his death, and is generally considered to be biographical. Bringing together events in the Prophet¿s life with appropriate passages of Qur¿an in a considered sequence, the author presents an interpretation of Islam that existed in his times. It includes citations from the Qur¿¿n, as well as poetry that appears to have been inspired by activities during his life. This English translation of a seminal text on the life of Muhammad is an invaluable addition to the existing literature, and will be of great significance to students and scholars in the field of Islamic studies, Islamic history, Medieval history and Arabic literature.

This in-depth examination of the life, history, and influence of Muhammad as discussed by leading scholars provides a wide-ranging look at the prophet's legacy unlike any other in the field of Islamic and culture studies. * Documents Muhammad's broad impact on history, culture, and society * Shares viewpoints from more than 100 scholars in the field of Islamic studies to provide different perspectives on how Muhammad's life and beliefs have changed the course of history * Explores Muhammad's changing image--and controversies over his depiction and the communication of his ideas--in art, music, and literature * Provides an in-depth overview of Muhammad's influences on secular life and culture

This is the first book to evaluate the writing of Islam's major scriptural sources within the context of the bloody conflicts that surrounded the succession of the Prophet. Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi rebuilds a Shi'ite understanding of Islam's early history and the genesis of its holy scriptures. At the same time, he proposes a fresh interpretative framework for the early history of Islam, isolating the contradictions between Shi'ite and Sunni sources and their contribution to the tensions that rile these groups today.