The First Muslims History and Memory

by Afsaruddin, Asma

• ISBN13: 9781851685189
• ISBN10: 1851685189
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-10-01
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications

Summary

A fresh look at the origins and development of Islam, this is a fascinating reconstruction of the formative era of the Muslim community. Using a wealth of classical Arabic sources, it chronicles the lives of the Prophet Muhammad, his Companions, and the subsequent two generations of Muslims, together known as the the Pious Forebears. This accessible book takes a close look at the embryonic Muslim communities and explains the impact of the earliest converts on the development of Islam and its current beliefs.

Author Biography

Asma Afsaruddin is Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. x
Introduction	p. xii
The Rise of Islam and Life of the Prophet Muhammad	p. 1
The Constitution of Medina	p. 4
War and peace	p. 7
The Treaty of al-Hudaybiyya	p. 10
The fall of Mecca	p. 12
Farewell pilgrimage	p. 13
Remembering the Prophet, the Beloved of God	p. 16
The Issue of Succession to the Prophet	p. 19
Early tension between kinship and individual moral excellence	p. 22
Why did the Prophet not indicate a successor?	p. 26
The Age of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs	p. 27
Abu Bakr, the first caliph	p. 27
'Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph	p. 30
The End of Rightly-Guided Leadership	p. 47
Political administration	p. 47
The collection of the Qur'an	p. 48
Toward fragmentation of the community	p. 50
The caliphate of 'Ali ibn Abi Talib	p. 51
The first civil war	p. 52
The legacy of the era of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs	p. 54
The Age of the Companions	p. 59
Ibn 'Abbas: the sage of the Muslim community	p. 61
Ibn Mas'ud: interpreter of the Word of God	p. 63
'A'isha bint Abi Bakr: the beloved of Muhammad	p. 66
Umm 'Umara: valiant defender of the Prophet	p. 70
Bilal ibn Rabah: the voice of Islam	p. 71
Conclusion	p. 73
The Age of the Successors	p. 76
The historical milieu	p. 76
The politics of piety and the second civil war	p. 81
The third civil war	p. 85
The 'Abbasid revolution	p. 87
Prominent successors	p. 90
The consolidation of Shi'i thought	p. 95
The rise of law and jurisprudence among the early Sunnis	p. 98
The Successors to the Successors I: Administration, Leadership, and Jihad	p. 106
The founding of Baghdad	p. 106
Statecraft, administration, and leadership: acquiring a Persian flavor	p. 107
The concept of jihad: Qur'anic antecedents and the classical juridical doctrine	p. 108
Reading the Qur'an in context	p. 109
Later understandings of jihad	p. 115
Negotiating the polyvalence of the term jihad	p. 116
Many paths to martyrdom	p. 120
Changes in conceptions of leadership	p. 123
The Successors to the Successors II: Humanism, Law, and Mystical Spirituality	p. 129
The rise of humanism	p. 129
The flourishing of law and jurisprudence	p. 137
The rise of tasawwuf (Sufism)	p. 142
Constructing the Pious Forbears I: Historical Memory and the Present	p. 148
The Islamist construction	p. 148
Implications and relevance of studying the lives of the first Muslims today	p. 152
The Salaf al-Salih in the Islamist imagination	p. 155
Constructing the Pious Forbears II: Historical Memory and the Present	p. 168
The significance of the Salaf al-Salih for the modernists	p. 168
Assessment of Islamist and Modernist Views	p. 183
The "Islamic State"	p. 183
The pervasiveness of the religious law and its scope	p. 187
Status of women	p. 190
The nature of jihad	p. 192
Conclusion	p. 196
Endnotes	p. 200
Select Bibliography	p. 231
Glossary	p. 239
General Index	p. 243
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