Cover ; Title Page ; Copyright ; Dedication ; Contents ; Introduction: How Does Truth Happen? ; Chapter 1. How to Read the Earliest Sources? ; Chapter 2. The Earliest Narrative Reports (Riwāyahs) and Their Transmitters ; Riwāyahs 1 to 7: From Muḥammad b. Ka'b al-Quraẓī ; Riwāyah 1: From the Rayy Recension of the Sīrah of Muḥammad Ibn Isḥāq ; Riwāyah 2: Abū Ma'shar's Report from Muḥammad b. Ka'b and Muḥammad b. Qays ; Riwāyah 3: al-Wāqidī's Report from al-Muṭṭalib b. Ḥanṭab and the Banū Ẓafar ; Riwāyahs 4 to 6: Summary Reports from Muḥammad b. Ka'b al-Quraẓī
Riwāyah 10: al-Dhahabī's Citation of the Maghāzī of Mūsā b. 'Uqbah Riwāyah 11: Abū Nu'aym al-Iṣbahānī's Citation of the Maghāzī of Mūsā b. 'Uqbah ; Riwāyah 12: al-Suyūṭī's Citation from Ibn Abī Ḥātim's Tafsīr of the Maghāzī of Mūsā b. 'Uqbah ; Riwāyah 13: al-Kilā'ī's Citation of the Maghāzī of Mūsā b. 'Uqbah ; Riwāyahs 8 to 13: Conclusions ; Riwāyahs 14 and 15: al-Zuhrī from Abū Bakr 'Abd al-Raḥmān b. al-Ḥārith ; Riwāyah 14: Probably from al-Zuhrī's Tafsīr with a ṣaḥīḥ mursal isnād ; Riwāyah 15: Probably from al-Zuhrī's Kitāb al-maghāzī ; Riwāyahs 14 and 15: Conclusions
Riwāyah 21: In the Tafsīr of 'Abd b. Ḥumayd al-Samarqandī Riwāyah 22: In the Tafsīr of Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī ; Riwāyah 23: From Muḥammad b. al-Sā'ib al-Kalbī ; Riwāyahs 24 to 26: From Qatādah b. Di'āmah ; Riwāyah 24: Cited by Yaḥyā b. Sallām al-Baṣrī in His Tafsīr ; Riwāyah 25: al-Ṭabarī's Citation of Tafsīr Muḥammad ibn Thawr 'an Ma'mar 'an Qatādah, and of al-Ḥasan b. Yaḥyā's Citation of Qatādah in the Baghdādī Transmission of the Tafsīr of 'Abd al-Razzāq al-Ṣan'ānī ; Riwāyah 26: From the Tafsīr of 'Abd al-Razzāq al-Ṣan'ānī ; Riwāyahs 24 to 26: Conclusions
Riwāyah 4: A Summary Report from Muḥammad b. Ka'b in the Tafsīr of Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī Riwāyah 5: A Summary Report from Muḥammad b. Ka'b in the Tafsīr of Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī ; Riwāyah 6: A Summary Report from Muḥammad b. Ka'b in the Tafsīr of Abū al-Shaykh al-Iṣbahānī ; Riwāyah 7: From the Maghāzī of Yūnus b. Bukayr ; Riwāyahs 8 to 13: From 'Urwah b. al-Zubayr ; Riwāyah 8: From Abū al-Aswad's Egyptian Recension of 'Urwah's Maghāzī ; Riwāyah 9: al-Bayhaqī's Citation of the Maghāzī of Mūsā b. 'Uqbah, and Ibn Kathīr's Citation from Ibn Abī Ḥātim of the Maghāzī of Mūsā b. 'Uqbah
Riwāyahs 16 to 20: From Abū al-'Āliyah al-Baṣrī Riwāyah 16: Cited by al-Ṭabarī with a ṣaḥīḥ mursal Basran isnād ; Riwāyah 17: Also Cited by al-Ṭabarī with a ṣaḥīḥ mursal Basran isnād ; Riwāyah 18: Cited by al-Suyūṭī in the Durr from the Tafsīrs of al-Ṭabarī, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim by an Unspecified ṣaḥīḥ isnād ; Riwāyah 19: Cited by al-Suyūṭī in the Durr from the Tafsīrs of al-Ṭabarī, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī ; Riwāyah 20: Cited by Yaḥyā b. Sallām al-Baṣrī in his Tafsīr ; Riwāyahs 16 to 20: Conclusions ; Riwāyahs 21 and 22: From al-Suddī
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One of the most controversial episodes in the life of the Prophet Muhammad concerns an incident in which he allegedly mistook words suggested by Satan as divine revelation. Known as the Satanic verses, these praises to the pagan deities contradict the Islamic belief that Allah is one and absolute. Muslims today--of all sects--deny that the incident of the Satanic verses took place. But as Shahab Ahmed explains, Muslims did not always hold this view. Before Orthodoxy wrestles with the question of how religions establish truth--especially religions such as Islam that lack a centralized authority to codify beliefs. Taking the now universally rejected incident of the Satanic verses as a case study in the formation of Islamic orthodoxy, Ahmed shows that early Muslims, circa 632 to 800 CE, held the exact opposite belief. For them, the Satanic verses were an established fact in the history of the Prophet. Ahmed offers a detailed account of the attitudes of Muslims to the Satanic verses in the first two centuries of Islam and traces the chains of transmission in the historical reports known as riwāyah. Touching directly on the nature of Muhammad's prophetic visions, the interpretation of the Satanic verses incident is a question of profound importance in Islam, one that plays a role in defining the limits of what Muslims may legitimately say and do--issues crucial to understanding the contemporary Islamic world.--