ABSTRACT

The formative period of Islam remains highly contested. From the beginning of modern scholarship on this formative period, scholars have questioned traditional Muslim accounts on early Islam. The scholarly fixation is mirrored by sectarian groups and movements within Islam, most of which trace their origins to this period. Moreover, contemporary movements from Salafists to modernists continue to point to Islam’s origins to justify their positions.

This Handbook provides a definitive overview of early Islam and how this period was understood and deployed by later Muslims. It is split into four main parts, the first of which explores the debates and positions on the critical texts and figures of early Islam. The second part turns to the communities that identified their origins with the Qurʾān and Muḥammad. In addition to the development of Muslim identities and polities, of particular focus is the relationship with groups outside or movements inside of the umma (the collective community of Muslims). The third part looks beyond what happened from the 7th to the 9th centuries CE and explores what that period, the events, figures, and texts have meant for Muslims in the past and what they mean for Muslims today. Not all Muslims or scholars are willing to merely reinterpret early Islam and its sources, though; some are willing to jettison parts, or even all, of the edifice that has been constructed over almost a millennium and a half. The Handbook therefore concludes with discussions of re-imaginations and revisions of early Islam and its sources.

Almost every major debate in the study of Islam and among Muslims looks to the formative period of Islam. The wide range of contributions from many of the leading academic experts on the subject therefore means that this book will be a valuable resource for all students and scholars of Islamic studies, as well as for anyone with an interest in early Islam.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

part I|119 pages

The Qurʾān and Muḥammad

chapter 1|16 pages

The Qurʾān 1

chapter 2|12 pages

The Qurʾān and other scriptures

chapter 4|16 pages

Muḥammad

chapter 5|14 pages

The sīra

chapter 6|19 pages

Ḥadīth and sunna *

chapter 7|28 pages

Exegesis 1

part II|111 pages

Identities and communities in early Islam

chapter 12|14 pages

The myth of the “Shīʿī perspective”

Identity and memory in early Islam

chapter 13|15 pages

Mysticism in early Islam

The pre-compilations phase

part III|70 pages

Modern and contemporary reinterpretation of early Islam

chapter 14|17 pages

Modernists and their opponents

Reading Islam

chapter 15|16 pages

The golden age and the contemporary political order

The Muslim Brotherhood and early Islam

chapter 16|22 pages

Salafīs

Past to present, present to past

part IV|80 pages

Revisioning early Islam

chapter 18|16 pages

Early Islam

An alternative scenario of its emergence

chapter 19|12 pages

Qurʾānists

chapter 20|20 pages

In search of authenticity

Modern discourse over homosexuality through early Islamic thought

chapter 21|15 pages

True history in black and white

Reimagined origins in the Nation of Islam