Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam

351 Pages·2017·2.82 MB·English

by  Shahab Ahmed

Before orthodoxy

B E F O R E O R T H O D O X Y
The Satanic Verses in Early Islam
SHAHAB AHMED
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
2017
Copyright © 2017 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First printing
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ahmed, Shahab, 1966–2015, author.
Title: Before orthodoxy : the Satanic Verses in early Islam / Shahab Ahmed.
Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2017. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016047420 | ISBN 9780674047426 (hc)
Subjects: LCSH: Islamic heresies. | Islam—Controversial literature. |
Islam—History—To 1500. | Islam—Origin. | Muòhammad, Prophet, –632.
Classification: LCC BP167.5 .A36 2017 | DDC 297.1/25163—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016047420
Jacket image: The pre-Islamic Arabian deities Al-Lat, Al-Uzza and Manat, Hatra
(temple 5), 1st century CE/Pictures from History/Bridgeman Images.
Jacket design: Annamarie McMahon Why
To the memory of my maternal grandmother,
Sayyidah ṬayyiBah Ghaw�īyah KhĀtŪn,
my first teacher of Islamic history

Contents
Introduction: How Does Truth Happen? / 1
Chapter 1. How to Read the Earliest Sources? / 11
Chapter 2. T he Earliest Narrative Reports (Riwāyahs)
and Their Transmitters / 41
Riwāyahs 1 to 7: from muḥammad b. Ka‘B al-Quraẓī / 44
Riwāyah 1: From the Rayy Recension of the Sīrah of Muḥammad Ibn
Isḥāq / 44
Riwāyah 2: Abū Ma‘shar’s Report from Muḥammad b. Ka‘b and
Muḥammad b. Qays / 72
Riwāyah 3: al-Wāqidī’s Report from al-Muṭṭalib b. Ḥanṭab and the
Banū Ẓafar / 86
Riwāyahs 4 to 6: Summary reportS from
muḥammad b. Ka‘B al-Quraẓī / 95
viii CONTENTS
Riwāyah 4: A Summary Report from Muḥammad b. Ka‘b in the
Tafsīr of Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī / 95
Riwāyah 5: A Summary Report from Muḥammad b. Ka‘b in the
Tafsīr of Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī / 96
Riwāyah 6: A Summary Report from Muḥammad b. Ka‘b in the
Tafsīr of Abū al-Shaykh al-Iṣbahānī / 97
Riwāyah 7: From the Maghāzī of Yūnus b. Bukayr / 99
Riwāyahs 8 to 13: from ‘urwah b. al-ZuBayr / 105
Riwāyah 8: From Abū al-Aswad’s Egyptian Recension of ‘Urwah’s
Maghāzī / 105
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 / 115
Riwāyah 10: al-Dhahabī’s Citation of the Maghāzī of Mūsā b.
‘Uqbah / 125
Riwāyah 11: Abū Nu‘aym al-Iṣbahānī’s Citation of the Maghāzī of
Mūsā b. ‘Uqbah / 129
Riwāyah 12: al-Suyūṭī’s Citation from Ibn Abī Ḥātim’s Tafsīr of the
Maghāzī of Mūsā b. ‘Uqbah / 131
Riwāyah 13: al-Kilā‘ī’s Citation of the Maghāzī of Mūsā b.
‘Uqbah / 134
Riwāyahs 8 to 13: ConCluSionS / 137
Riwāyahs 14 and 15: al-Zuhrī from aBū BaKr ‘aBd
al-raḥmān b. al-ḥārith / 138
Riwāyah 14: Probably from al-Zuhrī’s Tafsīr with a ṣaḥīḥ mursal
isnād / 139
Riwāyah 15: Probably from al-Zuhrī’s Kitāb al-maghāzī / 143
Riwāyahs 14 and 15: ConCluSionS / 145
Riwāyahs 16 to 20: from aBū al-‘āliyah al-Baṣrī / 146
CONTENTS ix
Riwāyah 16: Cited by al-Ṭabarī with a ṣaḥīḥ mursal Basran
isnād / 147
Riwāyah 17: Also Cited by al-Ṭabarī with a ṣaḥīḥ mursal Basran
isnād / 149
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 / 151
Riwāyah 19: Cited by al-Suyūṭī in the Durr from the Tafsīrs of
al-Ṭabarī, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī / 153
Riwāyah 20: Cited by Yaḥyā b. Sallām al-Baṣrī in his Tafsīr / 154
Riwāyahs 16 to 20: ConCluSionS / 157
Riwāyahs 21 and 22: from al-Suddī / 158
Riwāyah 21: In the Tafsīr of ‘Abd b. Ḥumayd al-Samarqandī / 158
Riwāyah 22: In the Tafsīr of Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī / 160
Riwāyah 23: from muḥammad b. al-Sā’iB al-KalBī / 162
Riwāyahs 24 to 26: from Qatādah b. di‘āmah / 166
Riwāyah 24: Cited by Yaḥyā b. Sallām al-Baṣrī in His Tafsīr / 166
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 / 169
Riwāyah 26: From the Tafsīr of ‘Abd al-Razzāq al-Ṣan‘ānī / 175
Riwāyahs 24 to 26: ConCluSionS / 179
Riwāyahs 27 to 30: from muQātil b. Sulaymān / 180
Riwāyah 27: Muqātil’s Commentary on Qur’ān 22:52 al-Ḥajj / 181