Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam

A controversial episode in the life of the Prophet Muhammad concerns an incident in which he allegedly mistook words suggested by Satan as divine revelation. Muslims now universally deny that the Satanic verses incident took place. But Muslims did not always hold this view. Shahab Ahmed uses this case to explore how religions establish truth.

Table of Contents:
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Riwāyahs 27 to 30: From Muqātil b. Sulaymān Riwāyah 27: Muqātil’s Commentary on Qur’ān 22:52 al-Ḥajj Riwāyah 28: Muqātil’s Commentary on Qur’ān 53:19–26 al-Najm Riwāyah 29: Muqātil’s Commentary on Qur’ān 109 al-Kāfirūn Riwāyah 30: Muqātil’s Commentary on Qur’ān 39:43–45 al-Zumar Riwāyahs 27 to 30: Conclusions Riwāyah 31: From Mujāhid’s Commentary on Qur’ān 22:52 al-Ḥajj Cited by Ibn ‘Aqīlah Riwāyah 32: From Mujāhid’s Commentary on Qur’ān 39:45 al-Zumar Cited by al-Wāḥidī Riwāyah 33: From Mujāhid’s Commentary on Qur’ān 17:73 al-Isrā’ Cited by al-Tha‘labī Riwāyah 34: From al-Ḍaḥḥāk b. Muzāḥim al-Balkhī Riwāyahs 35 to 44: Attributed to ‘Abd Allāh b. ‘Abbās Riwāyah 35: From ‘Aṭiyyah b. Sa‘d al-‘Awfī Riwāyah 36: From Abū Ṣāliḥ Riwāyah 37: From ‘Aṭā’ b. Abī Rabāḥ al-Makkī Riwāyah 38: Cited Directly from Ibn ‘Abbās in the Gharā’ib al-Qur’ān of Niẓām al-Dīn al-Naysābūrī Riwāyah 39: From Abū Sāliḥ; from ‘Ikrimah the mawlā of Ibn ‘Abbās; and from an Unnamed Source Riwāyahs 40 to 44: Sa‘īd b. Jubayr from Ibn ‘Abbās Riwāyah 40: In the Mukhtārah of al-Ḍiyā’ al-Maqdisī with a Deficient isnād Riwāyah 41: In the Tafsīr of Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī with an Unacknowledged ṣaḥīḥ isnād Riwāyah 42: In the Asbāb al-nuzūl of al-Wāḥidī with an isnād Stopping at Sa‘īd b. Jubayr Riwāyah 43: Cited from Yūsuf b. Ḥammād al-Baṣrī in the Musnad of al-Bazzār with Two Cautionary Remarks Riwāyah 44: Cited from Yūsuf b. Ḥammād al-Baṣrī in the Mu‘jam al-Kabīr of al-Ṭabarānī and in the Tafsīr of Ibn Mardawayh, with an Interesting Remark Riwāyahs 35 to 44: Conclusions Riwāyah 45: Cited by al-Ṭabarī from Sa‘īd b. Jubayr via Shu‘bah and Abū Bishr Ja‘far b. Abī Waḥshiyyah Riwāyah 46: Cited by Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī from Sa‘īd b. Jubayr via Shu‘bah and Abū Bishr Ja‘far b. Abī Waḥshiyyah Riwāyah 47: Cited by al-Suyūṭī in the Durr without an isnād Riwāyahs 40 to 47: Conclusions Riwāyah 48: From ‘Ikrimah, the mawlā of Ibn ‘Abbās Riwāyahs 49 and 50: From al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī Riwāyah 49: Cited from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī in al-Nukat wa-al-‘uyūn of al-Māwardī Riwāyah 50: Cited from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī in Aḥkām al-Qur’ān of al-Jaṣṣāṣ Conclusions: The Satanic Verses, Riwāyahs 1 to 50 Chapter 3. Why Did the Early Muslim Community Accept the Satanic Verses Incident as Truth? Bibliography Acknowledgments Index

Review :
[Ahmed] was not concerned with whether the Satanic Verses incident really occurred or not. His topic is instead what people believed to have occurred. The results are all the more perceptive (and valuable) for that. -- Bruce Fudge Times Literary Supplement [Ahmed] offers the most systematic, critical study of an especially important tradition from early Islamic history, the so-called incident of the Satanic verses. -- S. J. Shoemaker Choice The battle over Islamic orthodoxy continues to rage on today, making this work of contemporary relevance...A valuable piece of in-depth scholarship on the formation of the early Islamic community and its discourses about Muslim beliefs and practices. -- Publishers Weekly This has been a long anticipated book, and the wait has been worth it. It is an excellent study of a complicated theological problem in Islamic religious history that has persisted due to the nature of the sources and the role it plays in defining and redefining the character of Muhammad and the nature of revelation. Both a study on what is arguably one of the most fascinating stories about Muhammad and a primer to the field of Islamic studies and the debate on early sources, this will be an instant classic. -- Walid Saleh, University of Toronto Well organized and clearly written, this work is based upon an exhaustive examination of the sources. The analysis is meticulous, the book sober in its conclusions. Ahmed's goal is to explain one aspect of the formation of Islamic orthodoxy by investigating 'how truth happens.' He makes an important distinction between the three types of source material that make up historical memory discourse: sirah or biography; tafsir or Quranic exegesis; and hadith or prophetic exemplum. Ahmed asks good questions--and he answers them in a convincing manner. -- David Powers, Cornell University