Oriental Christianity and early Islam 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘈𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯

Abstract

One of the most problematic issues confronting any serious research concerning Islam is that what we know of its establishment and early development can only be ascertained from documentation originating from within the Muslim community itself. Furthermore, the early biographies of Muḥammad date back to about one hundred and fifty years after his death by which time Islam had already expanded outside the confines of Arabia, become an empire, and experienced political and, more importantly, religious dissent. This means that such accounts as well as the sayings of the Prophet (ḥadīth) are more likely to reflect the period in which they were written rather than that of Muḥammad’s lifetime. Then again, Eastern and Oriental Christian chronicles dating from the death of the Prophet referred to Islam in terms that were familiar to their respective traditions. They had scant knowledge of its doctrines and in most cases did not even consider it as a non-Christian religion. Pre-Islamic Jewish and Christian presence in Arabia, however, is quite well documented and recorded.