Heretic and impostor or reformer and statesman? The contradictory Western visions of Muhammad In European culture, Muhammad has been vilified as a heretic, an impostor, and a pagan idol. But these aren’t the only images of the Prophet of Islam that emerge from Western history. Commentators have also portrayed Muhammad as a visionary reformer and an inspirational leader, statesman, and lawgiver. In Faces of Muhammad, John Tolan provides a comprehensive history of these changing, complex, and contradictory visions. Starting from the earliest calls to the faithful to join the Crusades against the “Saracens,” he traces the evolution of Western conceptions of Muhammad through the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and up to the present day. Faces of Muhammad reveals a lengthy tradition of positive portrayals of Muhammad that many will find surprising. To Reformation polemicists, the spread of Islam attested to the corruption of the established Church, and prompted them to depict Muhammad as a champion of reform. In revolutionary England, writers on both sides of the conflict drew parallels between Muhammad and Oliver Cromwell, asking whether the prophet was a rebel against legitimate authority or the bringer of a new and just order. Voltaire first saw Muhammad as an archetypal religious fanatic but later claimed him as an enemy of superstition. To Napoleon, he was simply a role model: a brilliant general, orator, and leader. The book shows that Muhammad wears so many faces in the West because he has always acted as a mirror for its writers, their portrayals revealing more about their own concerns than the historical realities of the founder of Islam.

"Including Selections from Sayyed Ahmad 'Alawi's Sharoh Kitaab al-Qabasaat."

In 1105, six years after the first crusaders from Europe conquered Jerusalem, a Damascene Muslim jurisprudent named ’Ali ibn Tahir al-Sulami (d. 1106) publicly dictated an extended call to the military jihad (holy war) against the European invaders. Entitled Kitab al-Jihad (The Book of the Jihad), al-Sulami’s work both summoned his Muslim brethren to the jihad and instructed them in the manner in which it ought to be conducted, covering topics as diverse as who should fight and be fought, treatment of prisoners and plunder, and the need for participants to fight their own inner sinfulness before turning their efforts against the enemy. Al-Sulami’s text is vital for a complete understanding of the Muslim reaction to the crusades, providing the reader with the first contemporary record of Muslim preaching against the crusaders. However, until recently only a small part of the text has been studied by modern scholars, as it has remained for the most part an unedited manuscript. In this book Niall Christie provides a complete edition and the first full English translation of the extant sections (parts 2, 8, 9 and 12) of the manuscript of al-Sulami’s work, making it fully available to modern readers for the first time. These are accompanied by an introductory study exploring the techniques that the author uses to motivate his audience, the precedents that influenced his work, and possible directions for future study of the text. In addition, an appendix provides translations of jihad sermons by Ibn Nubata al-Fariqi (d. 985), a preacher from Asia Minor whose rhetorical style was highly influential in the development of al-Sulami’s work.

An inquiry into the religious environment of the person Muslims hail as the “Envoy of God” and an attempt to trace his progress along the path from paganism to that distinctive form of monotheism called Islam.

One of only a handful of studies on German literary Orientalism, Professor Heizer's pioneering book is the first to examine the phenomenon of Jewish-German Orientalist literature. For many Jewish-German authors of the beginning of the twentieth century, the Orient represented an imaginative space where they could describe and analyze their position as Jews in German society.

This study of the Qur'an arises from an interest in a pressing contemporary issue, the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims ('the Ummah and the Other'). This text explores how the Qur'an comments on this relationship as it changed in the course of Muhammad's ministry. Particular attention is paid to the portrayal in the Meccan 'punishment-narratives' of a fascinating and complex triangular relationship between God, the powerless and persecuted believing community with Muhammad at its centre, and the unbelieving Meccans who rejected Muhammad's preaching. The text raising questions about the possible contemporary relevance of this analysis, focusing firstly on discussions about the appropriate models for Islamic society today, and secondly on dialogue between Christians and Muslims. This book presents a detailed and illuminating analysis of many important Qur'anic themes and passages, and offers a coherent and original account of significant developments within the thought of the Qur'an as a whole.

Der Koran ist zweifellos eines der bedeutendsten religiösen Werke der Weltgeschichte. Als heilige Schrift des Islam bildet er die Grundlage für das Glaubenssystem von über einer Milliarde Menschen auf der ganzen Welt. Der Koran ist jedoch nicht nur ein religiöses Buch, sondern auch ein historisches Dokument von unschätzbarem Wert, das uns Einblicke in die Kultur, Politik und Gesellschaft des 7. Jahrhunderts gibt. Die Entstehung des Korans ist ein faszinierendes Kapitel der Weltgeschichte. Der Prophet Mohammed erhielt die Offenbarungen, aus denen der Koran besteht, über einen Zeitraum von 23 Jahren von Gott. Diese Offenbarungen wurden von Mohammed und seinen Anhängern aufgeschrieben und später gesammelt, um die heilige Schrift des Islam zu bilden. Doch die Geschichte der Entstehung des Korans ist komplexer, als es auf den ersten Blick scheinen mag. In der muslimischen Tradition gilt der Koran als unveränderlich, seit seiner Offenbarung an den Propheten Mohammed. Das geschah in den Jahren 610 und 632 n. Chr. in Mekka und Medina. Doch in jüngerer Zeit gefundene Manuskripte legen die Vermutung nahe, dass unterschiedliche Versionen im Umlauf waren, bevor sich die Fassung des Kalifen Uthman durchsetzte. Diese Manuskripte werfen viele Fragen auf und haben zu hitzigen Debatten unter Wissenschaftlern geführt. Um die Entstehungsgeschichte des Korans besser zu verstehen, müssen wir uns auch mit der Kultur und der Gesellschaft des 7. Jahrhunderts auseinandersetzen. Die Arabische Halbinsel war zu dieser Zeit von vielen verschiedenen Stämmen und Religionen geprägt. Mohammeds Botschaft des Monotheismus und der Einheit Gottes traf auf Widerstand, aber gewann auch viele Anhänger. Die politische und kulturelle Landschaft des 7. Jahrhunderts hatte einen großen Einfluss auf die Entstehung und Verbreitung des Korans. Insgesamt ist die Entstehungsgeschichte des Korans ein faszinierendes und komplexes Thema, das viele Fragen aufwirft. Es gibt immer noch viel, was wir nicht wissen und es bleibt ein aktives Forschungsgebiet für Wissenschaftler auf der ganzen Welt. Doch das Wissen, das wir über die Entstehung des Korans haben, gibt uns auch Einblicke in die Kultur, Politik und Gesellschaft des 7. Jahrhunderts und hilft uns, die historischen und religiösen Entwicklungen des Islam besser zu verstehen.