Critical review of Narratives of Islamic Origins, The beginnings of Essay

Critical review of Narratives of Islamic Origins, The beginnings of Islamic Historical writing, by Fred M Donner. On Introducti - Essay Example Donner succinctly outlines some of the main problems with the early Islamic sources in his introduction: ‘Chronological discrepancies and absurdities abound, as do flat contradictions in the meaning of events, or even, less frequently, on their fundamental course. Many accounts present information that seems clearly anachronistic; others provide ample evidence of embellishment or outright invention to serve the purpose of political or religious apologetic’ (6). The late Albrecht Noth opened the debate which challenged the conventional, almost literal approach to the Islamic source material in 1973, arguing that many of the accounts were merely anecdotes and themes used by the authors in the contexts they thought appropriate. In this latest work, Donner has built heavily on the work of the latter. Wansbrough produced a more radical critique in 1977, which was developed by Crone and Cook. They asserted that many of the established ‘truths’ concerning the Proph et’s lifetime could not be taken for granted. ... Narratives of Islamic Origins, from the introduction to the conclusion, Donner makes clear that he is an opponent of Crone’s Hagarism, which he refers to as the radically ‘skeptical’ approach. Much of the introduction of devoted to this refutation. Even from this summary, it is clear that the history of early Islam is one of the most bitterly-contested fields in modern historiography, and due to the polarisation of the debate, it is unlikely to be smoothed over in the near future. With his contribution, Donner can scarcely have been hoping to categorically resolve any of the issues at stake. However, in a way somewhat similar to the work of Robert Hoyland, Donner is beginning to build a middle ground in the debate, in which the Islamic sources need not be rejected or passionately advocated, but can be included in a careful and scholarly analysis of the period. Donner’s Narratives of Islamic Origins is just that – a comprehensive and thoroughly schola rly analysis to a wide body of primary sources, which adds little new to the overarching debate, but does distil some important issues. We are concerned in this review with the introduction of the book, which offers a basic summary of Donner’s main argument, and the preoccupations which have motivated the study, and with chapter 5, entitled, ‘Themes of Prophecy’. The introduction focuses on the intellectual context of early Islam, and especially on the key issue of establishing the Quran as a text which existed in some form from the earliest period. This is obviously crucial to the way in which we view this document. Those who tended towards Crone’s view argue that the Quran is a later construction, put together from legendary sayings of the Prophet. It is held by this school to be a collection of sayings