Overview

What motivated the early Islamic conquests? Did the Arabs fight for Allah, or for wealth and dominance? Were the conquerors principally Arabs, or specifically Muslims? Were the Muslim believers motivated by religious zeal to proclaim Islam to the non-Muslims? Consequently, was Islam spread by the sword? This is a question that has crucial implications today. The Stated Motivations for the Early Islamic Expansion (622–641) extensively analyzes the earliest Arabic Muslim sources to answer these and other questions. It relies on over 400 works, including primary sources written by more than 90 medieval Muslim authors, Sunni, Shiite, Sufi, and Mu’tazilite. It explores how medieval Muslim writers represented the early Arab leaders, and how much we can trust their reports. It concludes with an examination of the Qur’ān’s commands regarding fighting and armed jihad, and questions what later commentators suggest about fighting the non-Muslims, specifically how radical Muslim interpretations match or violate Islam’s sacred scripture. This is the first scholarly analysis to focus on the stated motivations for the early Islamic expansion in the first two decades of Islam. It is a valuable resource for courses on Muslim history, introduction to Islam, Islamic origins and texts, classical and modern Islamic thought, Muhammad’s biography, Islamic Caliphates, Muslim-Christian relations, Jews in the Muslim world, Middle Eastern history, and world history. In the age of ISIS, Qaeda, and Boko Haram, this book reflects on how historiographical accounts can inform today’s multi-cultural and multi-religious societies on complex relations, mutual respect, and religious coexistence.

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9781433135286

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Reviews

At a time of increased conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims, many are seeking to build peaceful relations by noting traditional Muslim interpretations of the motivation for early Muslim conquests. By carefully analyzing and demonstrating that these interpretations often reflect later political and social contexts Ayman S. Ibrahim frees us to rely on the sacred texts directly to build a case for cordial religious coexistence. -J. Dudley Woodberry, Dean Emeritus and Senior Professor of Islamic Studies, Fuller Graduate Schools The Stated Motivations for the Early Islamic Expansion (622-641) demonstrates an impressive knowledge of the Muslim medieval and modern literature and came to convincing groundbreaking conclusions in research of early Islam. -Yaron Friedman, University of Haifa, Author of The Nu?ayri-?Alawis Based on an impressive amount of sources, this book explores the early documentation of the Muslim conquests, and especially what motivated the Arab leaders and how trustworthy these accounts might be. Ayman S. Ibrahim's compelling work provides a welcome critical reflection on the early Islamic expansion in the first two decades of Islam. -Mehdi Azaiez, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Author of Le contre-discours coranique It is a pleasure to endorse Ayman S. Ibrahim's The Stated Motivations for the Early Islamic Expansion (622-641), which engages not only classical, but contemporary, Arabic Muslim sources regarding the conquests. No recent scholar comes close to matching his total command of Arabic sources, both past and present. The issues he raises concern not only distant history, but contemporary Arab interaction with that history. Ibrahim proves conclusively that-contrary to contemporary apologetic-historical analysis-these initial conquests were not religious in nature, nor were they for the sake of self-defense. There can be no doubt about the comprehensiveness of his research, nor about the importance and timeliness of his writing. -David Cook, Rice University, Author of Understanding Jihad Ayman S. Ibrahim's reasonable questioning of the traditional Muslim hypothesis about the Arab conquests is welcome for many reasons, not least among them that the hypothesis falsely claims that the conquests were self-defense operations for the sake of faith proclamation. He shows convincingly that this claim does not line up with the earliest Muslim narrative sources. Ibrahim's investigation goes even beyond this, however, to query the reliability and historicity of the Muslim narrative sources themselves. -Gordon Nickel, University of Calgary, Author of Narratives of Tampering in the Earliest Commentaries on the Qur'an The Stated Motivations for the Early Islamic Expansion (622-641) is a careful study which sheds new light on the earliest Islamic conquests and the development of an Islamic ideology of conquest in the days of the Prophet and the first caliphs. -Gabriel Said Reynolds, University of Notre Dame, Author of The Qur'an and Its Biblical Subtext

At a time of increased conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims, many are seeking to build peaceful relations by noting traditional Muslim interpretations of the motivation for early Muslim conquests. By carefully analyzing and demonstrating that these interpretations often reflect later political and social contexts Ayman S. Ibrahim frees us to rely on the sacred texts directly to build a case for cordial religious coexistence. -J. Dudley Woodberry, Dean Emeritus and Senior Professor of Islamic Studies, Fuller Graduate Schools The Stated Motivations for the Early Islamic Expansion (622-641) is a careful study which sheds new light on the earliest Islamic conquests and the development of an Islamic ideology of conquest in the days of the Prophet and the first caliphs. -Gabriel Said Reynolds, University of Notre Dame, Author of The Qur'an and Its Biblical Subtext The Stated Motivations for the Early Islamic Expansion (622-641) demonstrates an impressive knowledge of the Muslim medieval and modern literature and came to convincing groundbreaking conclusions in research of early Islam. -Yaron Friedman, University of Haifa, Author of The Nu?ayri-?Alawis Based on an impressive amount of sources, this book explores the early documentation of the Muslim conquests, and especially what motivated the Arab leaders and how trustworthy these accounts might be. Ayman S. Ibrahim's compelling work provides a welcome critical reflection on the early Islamic expansion in the first two decades of Islam. -Mehdi Azaiez, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Author of Le contre-discours coranique It is a pleasure to endorse Ayman S. Ibrahim's The Stated Motivations for the Early Islamic Expansion (622-641), which engages not only classical, but contemporary, Arabic Muslim sources regarding the conquests. No recent scholar comes close to matching his total command of Arabic sources, both past and present. The issues he raises concern not only distant history, but contemporary Arab interaction with that history. Ibrahim proves conclusively that-contrary to contemporary apologetic-historical analysis-these initial conquests were not religious in nature, nor were they for the sake of self-defense. There can be no doubt about the comprehensiveness of his research, nor about the importance and timeliness of his writing. -David Cook, Rice University, Author of Understanding Jihad Ayman S. Ibrahim's reasonable questioning of the traditional Muslim hypothesis about the Arab conquests is welcome for many reasons, not least among them that the hypothesis falsely claims that the conquests were self-defense operations for the sake of faith proclamation. He shows convincingly that this claim does not line up with the earliest Muslim narrative sources. Ibrahim's investigation goes even beyond this, however, to query the reliability and historicity of the Muslim narrative sources themselves. -Gordon Nickel, University of Calgary, Author of Narratives of Tampering in the Earliest Commentaries on the Qur'an

Author Information

Ayman S. Ibrahim, Ph.D., was born and raised in Egypt. He has taught in various countries within the Muslim world, and in the West at undergraduate and graduate levels. He is currently working on his second Ph.D. in the Department of Middle Eastern History at the University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, and is examining conversion to Islam in the earliest Muslim period. In addition, he is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at Southern Seminary and Director of the Jenkins Center for the Christian Understanding of Islam. His articles on Islam and Christian-Muslim relations have appeared in the Washington Post, Religion News Services, Colorado Springs Gazette, Louisville Courier-Journal, First Things, Faith Street, Charisma News, Evangelical Interfaith Dialogue Journal, Ethics Daily, among others.

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