Sectarian Milieu: Content and Composition of Islamic Salvation History (including the 1986 Albert Einstein Memorial Lecture, 'Res Ipsa Loquitur') Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Sectarian Milieu: Content and Composition of Islamic Salvation History (including the 1986 Albert Einstein Memorial Lecture, 'Res Ipsa Loquitur') Book

Aims to show that Islamic 'history' evolved out of an environment of competing Jewish and Christian sects. The author argues that the traditional biographies of Muhammad are best understood as literary texts written more than 100 years after the facts and heavily influenced by Jewish, and to a lesser extent, Christian, interconfessional polemics.Read More

from£N/A | RRP: £27.50
* Excludes Voucher Code Discount Also available Used from £N/A
  • Foyles

    One of the most innovative thinkers in the field of Islamic Studies was John Wansbrough (1928-2002), Professor of Semitic Studies and Pro-Director of London University's School of Oriental and African Studies. Critiquing the traditional accounts of the origins of Islam as historically unreliable and heavily influenced by religious dogma, Wansbrough suggested radically new interpretations very different from the views of both the Muslim orthodoxy and most Western scholars. In The Sectarian Milieu Wansbrough "analyses early Islamic historiography – or rather the interpretive myths underlying this historiography — as a late manifestation of Old Testament 'salvation history.'" Continuing themes that he treated in a previous work, Quranic Studies, Wansbrough argued that the traditional biographies of Muhammad (Arabic sira and maghazi) are best understood, not as historical documents that attest to "what really happened," but as literary texts written more than one hundred years after the facts and heavily influenced by Jewish, and to a lesser extent Christian, interconfessional polemics. Thus, Islamic "history" is almost completely a later literary reconstruction, which evolved out of an environment of competing Jewish and Christian sects. As such, Wansbrough felt that the most fruitful means of analyzing such texts was literary analysis. Furthermore, he maintained that it was next to impossible to extract the kernel of historical truth from works that were created principally to serve later religious agendas. Although his work remains controversial to this day, his fresh insights and approaches to the study of Islam continue to inspire scholars. This new edition contains a valuable assessment of Wansbrough's contributions and many useful textual notes and translations by Gerald Hawting (University of London), plus the author's 1986 Albert Einstein Memorial Lecture, "Res Ipsa Loquitur."

  • 1591023785
  • 9781591023784
  • John Wansbrough
  • 13 September 2006
  • Prometheus Books
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 200
  • annotated edition
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. If you click through any of the links below and make a purchase we may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you). Click here to learn more.

Would you like your name to appear with the review?

We will post your book review within a day or so as long as it meets our guidelines and terms and conditions. All reviews submitted become the licensed property of www.find-book.co.uk as written in our terms and conditions. None of your personal details will be passed on to any other third party.

All form fields are required.