E-Book Overview
Why and under what circumstances did the religion of Islam emerge in a remote part of Arabia at the beginning of the seventh century? Traditional scholarship maintains that Islam developed in opposition to the idolatrous and polytheistic religion of the Arabs of Mecca and the surrounding regions. In the first book-length study of pre-Islamic Arabian religion, G. R. Hawting adopts a comparative religious perspective to suggest an alternative view. By examining the various bodies of evidence which survive from this period, the Koran and the vast resources of the Islamic tradition, the author argues that in fact Islam arose out of conflict with other monotheists whose beliefs and practices were judged to fall short of true monotheism and were, in consequence, attacked polemically as idolatry. The author is adept at unravelling the complexities of the source material, and students and scholars will find his argument both engaging and persuasive.
E-Book Content
The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam From Polemic to History In this book G. R. Hawting supports the view that the emergence of Islam owed more to debates and disputes among monotheists than to arguments with idolaters and polytheists. He argues that the ‘associators’ (mushriku¯n) attacked in the Koran were monotheists whose beliefs and practices were judged to fall short of true monotheism and were portrayed polemically as idolatry. In commentaries on the Koran and other traditional literature, however, this polemic was read literally, and the ‘associators’ were identified as idolatrous and polytheistic Arab contemporaries and neighbours of Muhammad. Adopting a comparative religious perspective, the author considers why modern scholarship generally has been willing to accept the traditional image of the Koranic ‘associators’, he discusses the way in which the idea of idolatry has been used in Islam, Judaism and Christianity, and he questions the historical value of the traditional accounts of pre-Islamic Arab religion. The implications of these arguments for the way we think about the origins and nature of Islam should make this work engaging and stimulating for both students and scholars. . . is Senior Lecturer in the History of the Near and Middle East at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His publications include The First Dynasty of Islam (1986) and (with A. A. Shereef) Approaches to the QurÔan (1993). Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization Editorial board D M (general editor) V A M B M C P J T K R M B M C R Titles in the series S S , Mannerism in Arabic Poetry: A Structural Analysis of Selected Texts, 3rd Century AH/9th Century AD–5th Century AH/11th Century AD 0 521 35485 4 P E. W , Early Philosophical Shiism: The Ismaili Neoplatonism of Abu¯ YaÒqu¯b al-Sijista¯ni 0 521 44129 3 B S , Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo 0 521 43209 X A S , Palestinian Peasants and Ottoman Officials: Rural Administration around Sixteenth-century Jerusalem 0 521 45238 4 (hardback) 0 521 47679 8 (paperback) T K , Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical Period 0 521 46554 0 (hardback) 0 521 58938 X (paperback) R A -P , Mongols and Mamluks: the Mamluk–I¯lkha¯nid War, 1260–1281 0 521 46226 6 L M , Hierarchy and Egalitarianism in Islamic Thought 0 521 56430 1 J H , The Politics of Households in Ottoman Egypt: The Rise of the Qazdag˘lis 0 521 571103 T T. A , Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: A Cultural History of Islamic Textiles 0 521 58301 2 D R K , State and Provincial Society in the Ottoman Empire: Mosul, 1540–183