ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with relations between the early Muslims and those who are designated in the Quran as "Peoples of the Book"- generally understood to mean Jews, Christians, and sometimes adherents of some other religious confessions, including Zoroastrians. Contemporary documents from the seventh century CE show that the community founded by Muhammad did not refer to its members as "Muslims", or refer to its religion as "Islam", until around 700 CE; nor are the members of Muhammad's movement called "Muslims" in surviving contemporary sources from outside the community (mainly, Christian sources written in Syriac, Greek, Coptic, or Armenian). The information about Zoroastrian communities and their relations with the early Believers' movement is, like that for the Jews, very limited and unfortunately very little of it is of documentary character. Relations between the Peoples of the Book and the community of Believers appear to have changed decisively, beginning in the 690s CE.
