ABSTRACT
Muhammad’s establishment and consolidation of the city state in Medina and the Arab-Islamic conquests achieved under the first Caliphs are among the truly significant events in history. In this chapter, the author attempts a closer characterisation of the legendary futuh literature in all its iridescence, precisely as fiction with a historical background. In their early days, European Oriental Studies did not recognise correctly the legendary nature of the abovementioned futuh literature; for this we can adduce two reasons. Firstly, the historical accounts of the conquests became known comparatively late, such as Baladhuris Futuh al-buldan in de Goeje’s edition in 1863–1866, and the relevant passages in Tabaris Annals in the Leiden edition. Secondly, the legendary futuh works do in fact contain a wealth of historical material, be it chronological, topographical or quite generally factual, as they were not free inventions, but, so to speak, were developed out of the historical futuh works.
