ABSTRACT
At the end of the sixth century, Christianity was the dominant religion around, and partly on, the Arabian Peninsula. Christians usually have a hagiographical role in traditional Islamic sources. They recognise the signs of prophecy testify to Muhammad's prophethood and, usually in secret, convert to Islam. The main source for such hagiographical stories is Sira literature, but they are also found in qur'anic commentaries, hadiths and historical works, all of which are interdependent. Ibn Hisham, Sira I: 160–3, tells how as a young man Muhammad travelled to Syria in Abu Talib's caravan and was there recognised by the monk Bahira as the prophet whose coming had been predicted in holy scripts. In Islamic literature, the story of Bahira is narrated to show that a holy monk recognised Muhammad and, by implication, all true Christians should also recognise him. The first major attempt to redefine the birth of Islam and set it in a Christian context was Bell.
