Historical sources on the rise of Islam

Extract A

“THE Arabs adored many gods. The belief in the influence of the jinn was common; yet above the jinn, above all the gods in the Ka'ba, there was the Supreme One, Allah, the God. Ma'sudi tells us that in the 'days of ignorance', as pre‑Islamic times are called, some of the Quraish also proclaimed the Unity of God, affirmed the existence of one Creator, and believed in the resurrection; whilst others denied the existence of prophets and were attached to idolatry. Many of the people looked upon the idols as intercessors with the one God. Still the doctrine of the Unity of God was not altogether unknown to the Arabs. It was not something new which Muhammad brought to a people hitherto ignorant of it. The Arabs, however, were not a pious people, and the fear of Allah and the reverence of their numerous minor deities degenerated into a form of fetish worship. The superstitious reverence for natural objects led to the separating off of certain places as sacred. What they lacked in devotion to the gods was more than made up for by devotion to the clan. ‘The original religious society was the kindred group and all duties of kinship were part of religion.’ Infanticide was common, polygamy was practised and the moral condition was low.” 

Extract B

“MUHAMMAD, the son of 'Abdu'llah and his young wife Amina, was born at Mecca in the year A.D. 570. 'Abdu'llah died at Madina before his son was born. He left very little property, a house, some camels and a slave girl called Baraka, who became a faithful attendant of the child. In due course Amina gave birth to a son and sent the good news to his grandfather 'Abdu'l‑Muttalib, who took the infant to the Ka'ba, gave thanks to God and called the child Muhammad.” 

“When Muhammad was about six years old he went with his mother to pay a visit to their relatives in Madina… On the way back to Mecca Amina died at a place called Abwa'. This was a great blow to the lad. He refers to his orphan state thus:— ‘Did he not find thee an orphan and gave them a home?’ Suratu'dh‑Dhuha (xciii) 6. 

That home he found with his kind grandfather 'Abdu'l‑Muttalib, now eighty years of age, with whom the lad was a great favourite. As he sat under the shade of the Ka'ba his grand‑father placed him near himself. When some one tried to remove him, 'Abdu'l‑Muttalib said, ‘Let my son alone, for by Allah, he shall have a great future.’ Two years of his boyhood thus passed under the care of one who, as the head of the clan, occupied a commanding position… Then grief and sorrow came to Muhammad, for his grandfather who loved him so well passed away. 'Abdu'l‑Muttalib before his decease appointed his son Abu Talib as guardian of his grandson. Abu Talib executed his office kindly and well.” 

Extract C

“The general esteem in which Muhammad was held is seen from the following incident. The walls of the Ka'ba were seriously injured by a violent flood, and it was necessary to rebuild them. The work proceeded harmoniously until the walls were raised to such a height that the famous black stone could be placed in position. Then disputes arose, for each clan asserted its right to do such a sacred work. So great and dangerous was the dispute that for several days the re‑building was stopped altogether. At last the Quraish met to settle the dispute. Abu Ummaiya then said: ‘O Quraish hearken unto me! My advice is that the man, who chances first to enter in at the gate of the Bani Shaiba, shall be chosen to decide the difference amongst you, or himself to place the stone.’ Just then Muhammad entered through the gate. The parties exclaimed: ‘Muhammad the faithful one (al‑Amin) has arrived, we abide by his decision’. Muhammad then asked for a cloak, and having placed the stone in the middle of it, he directed that a chief from each clan should take hold of the border of the cloak and raise it. When the stone was thus brought to the proper place, he himself placed it in position.” 

Contextual information: 

Canon Edward Sell (1839–1932) was an Anglican clergyman, missionary, and orientalist who spent most of his career in Madras, India, serving as principal of a Muslim high school, secretary of the Church Missionary Society, and later canon of St George’s Cathedral. He wrote extensively on Islam in English and Urdu, and The Life of Muhammad (1913) reflects his attempt, as a Christian scholar immersed in Indian Muslim society, to summarise early Arabic sources for Western readers while explaining the social and religious background of Arabia. 

Bibliographical reference (APA): 

Sell, E. (1913). The life of Muhammad. Christian Literature Society for India. (pp. 1–3, 7–8, 10–11, 19–20). 

Copyright: Public Domain. 

“Of Arabian paganism we possess no trustworthy or complete account; since we hear of no theological literature belonging to it, probably no such account could have been given. There were doubtless a variety of practices, many of which have been continued to this day in the ceremonies of the pilgrimage, and offerings of different sorts to various deities, interpreted variously by the worshippers in accordance with their spiritual, intellectual and moral levels; e.g. as actual stones, or as men (or more often women) residing in the stones or otherwise connected with them, or bearing a similar relation to trees, or stars, &c. In general every tribe had its patron of the kind, and where there were aggregations of tribes, connexions were established between these deities, and affiliation‑theories excogitated; hence the theory attributed in the Koran to the Meccans that the goddesses al‑‘Uzzā, &c. were the daughters of Allah, may well represent the outcome of such speculation. These, however, were known to few, whereas the practices were familiar to all. Some of these were harmless, others barbarous; many offensive, but not very reprehensible, superstitions.” 

Contextual information: 

David Samuel Margoliouth (1858–1940) was a leading British orientalist and Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford from 1889 to 1937, renowned for his pioneering work on Islamic and Arabic history and literature. Writing in the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, he drew on Arabic chronicles and comparative religion to sketch pre‑Islamic Arabian paganism as a decentralised system of tribal cults centred on stones, trees, and star‑deities, a background against which Muhammad’s monotheistic preaching later appears. 

Bibliographical reference (APA): 

Margoliouth, D. S. (1911). Mahomet. In Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. (para. on Arabian paganism, unpaginated in online edition). 

Copyright: Public domain.

“The community which had settled in the valley of Meccah, or Beccah, cannot, when they selected this spot, have hoped to live by its produce; for that the soil is incapable of producing anything is attested by all who know it, from the author of the Koran to the present day. Their presence there is to be accounted for by their sanctuary, called the Ka'bah, not indeed the only Ka'bah, or cube‑shaped God's house, in Arabia, yet one that attracted many visitors. It stood in some relation to the Black Stone, let into the north‑west corner, kissed by devotees; and since both Greek and Arabic writers attest that the Arabs worshipped stones, many have thought this to be the real god of the Meccans, the Ka'bah itself being an ideal enlargement of it. On the other hand, the Ka'bah in Mohammed's time certainly contained the image of one god as well as representations of others. There was yet another theory that the Ka'bah contained a tomb, whence it may in origin have been a tent erected over a grave by a mourner, anxious to remain near the lost one; and indeed that the stone Ka'bah replaced an original tent is attested by its being roofless, save for a cloth, till Mohammed's time.” 

Contextual information: 

Margoliouth’s book Mohammed and the Rise of Islam appeared in 1905 as part of a series on world religious “heroes” and quickly became a standard English‑language biography of the Prophet. As a Christian Arabist trained in classical and Oriental languages, he combined philology with historical geography to describe Mecca and the Kaʿba, emphasising that the sanctuary contained images of multiple deities and that its Black Stone reflects earlier Arabian stone‑worship practices. 

Bibliographical reference (APA): 

Margoliouth, D. S. (1905). Mohammed and the rise of Islam. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. (p. 8). 

Copyright: Public domain.

“As the sacred volume of some 170 millions of the present inhabitants of the world, the Koran possesses an interest and importance which well merit, and will amply repay, attention and study. To the pious Musulman it is the very Word of God, the true rule of life, and the source of all his hopes for the future.” 

“Pious Musulmans, however, would have it believed that the book was of divine origin, and revealed to Muhammad on various occasions, sometimes at Mecca, and sometimes at Madina, during a period of twenty‑three years. After the passages had been set down in writing by his scribe from the Prophet's mouth, they were published to his followers, some of whom took copies, more or less incomplete, for their private use, but the far greater number learned them by heart. The originals when returned were placed promiscuously in a chest, where they remained in a state of confusion till the time of Abu Bakr, the Khalif or successor of the Prophet (A.D. 632–634). By his direction they were collected and additions made of those portions which had not previously been committed to writing. Matters remained in this condition till A.D. 652, when Othman, who was then Khalif, ordered a great number of copies to be transcribed from the compilation of Abu Bakr; with emendations by specially selected scholars, and dispersed this new edition throughout the Empire, in place of the old collections, which were thereupon suppressed.” 

Contextual information: 

Sir Arthur Naylor Wollaston (1842–1922) was a British civil servant in the India Office and a noted orientalist, known for his English–Persian dictionary and translations of Persian works, as well as essays on Islam. Writing The Religion of the Koran in 1911 for the popular “Wisdom of the East” series, he aimed to introduce the Qur’an’s contents and Muslim beliefs to general English readers, summarising traditional Muslim views of the Qur’an as the literal word of God and outlining the standard account of how the text was compiled under the first caliphs. 

Bibliographical reference (APA): 

Wollaston, A. N. (1911). The religion of the Koran. John Murray. (pp. 11–12). 

Copyright: Public domain.

“He now conceived the plan of seeking refuge in the friendly city, and in the year 622 (about twelve years after entering upon his work), after encouraging about 150 of his adherents to migrate to Yathrib, he fled thither, accompanied by Abu Bekr. The fugitives reached their destination not without danger, and were enthusiastically received. Thenceforth Yathrib was known as Madinat al‑Nabi (City of the Prophet), or Medina. The flight (the Hejira) is one of the great events of Islam and the starting‑point of the Mohammedan calendar. Soon after his return from Mecca he became ill and began to decline rapidly. He continued, however, to attend the public services at the mosque as long as possible. A few days afterwards he died in the arms of Ayesha, his favorite wife, on the 12th of the third month, in the year 11 of the Hejira (June 8, 632).” 

Contextual information: 

The article “Mohammed” in The New International Encyclopaedia was written by Nathaniel Schmidt (1862–1939), a Swedish‑American Baptist minister, Hebraist, and orientalist who taught Semitic languages and Old Testament at Colgate University and later at Cornell University. Composed for a broad American readership in the early 1900s, his entry places Muhammad’s life within world history and explains key chronological markers, including the Hijra of 622 as the beginning of the Muslim era and the traditional date of Muhammad’s death in 632. 

Bibliographical reference (APA): 

Schmidt, N. (c. 1915). Mohammed. In The New International Encyclopaedia (2nd ed.). Dodd, Mead and Company. (entry “Mohammed”). 

Copyright: Public domain.

“Thus from its very inception Islam has been a missionary religion, both in theory and in practice, for the life of Muḥammad exemplifies the same teaching, and the Prophet himself stands at the head of a long series of Muslim missionaries who have won an entrance for their faith into the hearts of unbelievers. Moreover it is not in the cruelties of the persecutor or the fury of the fanatic that we should look for the evidences of the missionary spirit of Islam, any more than in the exploits of that mythical personage, the Muslim warrior with sword in one hand and Qur'an in the other,—but in the quiet, unobtrusive labours of the preacher and the trader who have carried their faith into every quarter of the globe.” 

Contextual information: 

Sir Thomas Walker Arnold (1864–1930) was a British orientalist and historian of Islamic art who taught for many years at the Muhammadan Anglo‑Oriental College in Aligarh and at Government College, Lahore, and later became Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the School of Oriental Studies in London. Encouraged by Muslim reformer Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Arnold wrote The Preaching of Islam (first published 1896, revised 1913) to document how Islam historically spread, and his sympathetic, evidence‑based account emphasises peaceful preaching and trade rather than forced conversion as the main engines of Islamic expansion. 

Bibliographical reference (APA): 

Arnold, T. W. (1913). The preaching of Islam: A history of the propagation of the Muslim faith (2nd ed.). Constable & Company. (pp. 11–12). 

Copyright: Public domain.

“MOHAMMED was the child of Meccan parents whose names are given as Abdallah (Servant of Allah) and Aminah (The Safe or Secure). The latter belonged to the Banu Zuhrah, the former was the son of Abd al‑Muttalib, of the clan named Banu Hashim. It is certain that the future Prophet's father died before his son was born; it is said, when visiting Yathrib, afterwards better known as Medinah. Nor did his mother long survive him, and her grave was by some said to be at Abwa, a place midway between the two cities, where, some fifty years after, her bones lay in some danger of being exhumed.” 

Contextual information: 

In Mohammed and the Rise of Islam, Margoliouth applies his training as an Anglican classicist and professor of Arabic at Oxford to reconstruct Muhammad’s early life from Arabic sources, often with a critical, sometimes sceptical, approach. The passage on Muhammad’s parents and orphanhood reflects this scholarly style: it accepts some core traditions (such as the death of Muhammad’s father before his birth and his mother’s burial at Abwa) while marking the limits of certainty and competing reports. 

Bibliographical reference (APA): 

Margoliouth, D. S. (1905). Mohammed and the rise of Islam. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. (p. 45). 

Copyright: Public‑domain.