Mohammed

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Timurid representation of Muhammad; from the Mirajname , 1436, Herat . The work is in the collection of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris .
Islamic calligraphic representation with the name "Mohammed" and the associated eulogy

Mohammed or Muhammad , with full name Abū l-Qāsim Muhammad b. ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAbd al-Muttalib b. Hāschim b. ʿAbd Manāf al-Quraschī ( Arabic أبو القاسم محمد بن عبد الله بن عبد المطلب بن هاشم بن عبد مناف القرشي, DMG Abū l-Qāsim Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib b. Hāšim b. ʿAbd Manāf al-Qurašī ; born between 570 and 573 in Mecca ; died on June 8, 632 in Medina ), was the founder of Islam . In Islam he is considered a prophet and messenger of God .

Origin and family

The birth of the Prophet Mohammed. From the Jami at-tawarich (roughly: 'Universal History'), written by Raschīd ad-Dīn , Iran ( Tabriz ), c. AH 714 / AD 1314–1315 Ink, pigments and gold on paper. Edinburgh University Library (MS Arab 20, folio 42r), Cat. 6. On the left three women, on the right Mohammed's grandfather, ʿAbd al-Muttalib .

Mohammed was born in the Arab city of Mecca as a family member of the Banū Hāschim from the predominant tribe of the Quraish . His father ʿAbdallāh probably died before Muhammad was born around the year 570. His mother Āmina bint Wahb died around the year 577.

Many Arabic sources give the year of the elephant as the year of birth , which, according to recent research, is dated between 547 and 552. The compatibility with the other dates of Muhammad's life is disputed.

At-Tabarī (died 923) quotes the historian and genealogist Ibn al-Kalbī (died 819) with the statement that Mohammed was born in the 42nd year after the Sassanid ruler Khosrau I Anuschirwan came to power. Accordingly, his birth can be dated to the year 573. Al-Masʿūdī (died 957), on the other hand, dates his birth to the 39th year of the reign of Chosrau I, which corresponds to the year 570. The time is given as the twelfth day in Rabīʿ al-awwal , the third month of the Islamic calendar.

Mohammed had around ten wives in the course of his life. His first wife was Khadija ; his probably youngest wife was Aischa , to whom he was engaged and married between the ages of six and nine. Eight of his children are known by name. Fatima , his youngest daughter, was the only child whose offspring survived into adulthood.

The Meccan Period (until 622)

Early years of life

Immediately after his birth, Mohammed was given to his wet nurse Halīma bint Abī Dhuʾaib . There are some legends about his two-year stay with her and her tribe, who lived nomadically in the desert. At the age of six, Mohammed lost his mother Āmina . He then lived with his grandfather ʿAbd al-Muttalib , who, however, also died two years later. So Mohammed finally came into the household of his father's uncle Abū Tālib (younger brother of his father), who worked as a trader.

At a young age Mohammed worked as a shepherd, later he allegedly took part in two journeys of the trade caravans to the north ( Syria , i.e. to the Eastern Roman Empire ). The Fijār wars between the Quraish and Kināna on the one hand and the Qais ʿAilān on the other hand, which are dated to the early 590s, is said to have been attended by Mohammed at the age of 20.

Around 595, his employer at the time, the two-time merchant widow Chadidscha bint Chuwailid (555? –619) from the respected Quraishite family ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā, offered him the marriage. With their help, Mohammed achieved financial independence and social security - a turning point in his life. A Meccan sura in the Koran also refers directly to this time :

"Has he not found you as an orphan and granted (you) admission, found you on the wrong track and guided you, and found you in need and made you rich?"

- 93: 6-7

(This translation and the following translations: Rudi Paret)

According to the exegesis of the Koran, these verses belong to those parts of the Koran in which God addresses Mohammed directly. She interprets this passage as a characteristic of the social position of Muhammad in Mecca before he had his first revelations.

His daughter Fatima emerged from Muhammad's marriage to Chadīdscha , who was the only one of his children to have descendants of her own. All descendants of Muhammad descend from her.

Religious development and calling to be a prophet

Mohammed in front of the Kaaba (Turkish illumination from Siyer-i Nebi , 16th century). His face is not shown.

In late antiquity , monotheistic influences ( Judaism and Christianity ) increasingly came to Arabia. These influenced Mohammed's later development. According to Islamic traditions, Mohammed was before his first experiences of revelation in the religious tradition of his people, which was later - from an Islamic point of view - referred to as the time of the Jāhiliyya . Ibn al-Kalbi (died around 819), the author of the book of idols, quotes Mohammed when describing the idol al-ʿUzzā as saying: "I sacrificed a white ewe to al-ʿUzzā when I followed the religion of my people." in the biography of the prophet there are old reports that suggest the practice of pre-Islamic customs by Muhammad in his pre-prophetic time.

Relationship with the hemp Zaid ibn ʿAmr

In the Sira , the biography of the prophets of Muhammad ibn Ishaq , an encounter between Muhammad and the then well-known Hanīf Zaid ibn bekanntenAmr is described; According to the report, Mohammed is said to have offered Zaid the meat of "our sacrifices that we (have offered) to our idols", but Zaid rejected the consumption of it as reprehensible. “From that day on,” says the tradition of Mohammed, “I did not offer sacrifices to any idol until God gave me his message.” This episode occurs several times in the subsequent generations from al-Buchari up to the time of adh-Dhahabi has been shown.

Muhammad's age when he was called to be a prophet

According to current chronology, Mohammed was 40 years old when he was called to be a prophet. According to tradition, which can be traced back to the companion of the Prophet Anas ibn Mālik (died between 708 and 714), he received his calling “at the head of 40 years” ( ʿalā raʾs al-arbaʿīn ) or “when he was forty years old” ( wa -huwa ibn arbaʿīn sana ). Hisham ibn Muhammad Ibn al-Kalbī (died 819) even assumed that the angel Gabriel brought the message of God to Mohammed on the very day he was forty years old.

However, these ages are very likely idealizations from post-prophetic times. Aloys Sprenger already suspected that the Muslims “... a passage from the Koran ( Sura 46 : 15  corp ) and also the belief that the completion of the fortieth year is a most important phase in the spiritual development of man, which is widespread in the Orient ( has) to prefer a symbolic date to the historical date and to assert that the angel Gabriel first appeared to Moḥammad at the hour when he was forty years old. ” Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher , who in 1909 presented a study of the number 40 in the faith of the Semitic peoples , refers there in this context to the Greek concept of the Akme . Also Tilman Nagel assumes that the Forty was chosen as the age for the appointment of Mohammed because they "as a symbol of perfection was." He recommends not taking this number literally. Another important source for approximating the age of Muhammad at the beginning of his activity as a prophet is the Qur'an. In sura 10 , verse 16, Mohammed speaks about himself to his opponents with the words: "I stayed with you for a lifetime, even before he (ie the Koran) was there." The time indication, in Arabic ʿumuran in Accusative, as in another verse of the Koran ( Sura 28:14 ), suggests a longer period of time, as can also be seen from the Koran translation by Hartmut Bobzin : “I am already staying an age before her (before the reading of Revelation) to you."

In the early Islamic tradition there are also different information about the age of Muhammad when he was called. For example, the eminent Medinan scholar Saʿīd ibn al-Musaiyab (died 712/713) assumed that the Koran was only revealed to Mohammed after he had reached the age of 43. Also Abd Allah ibn Abbas (died 688) this view is said to have represented.

The first revelations

For Muhammad's first experiences of revelation, the biography of the prophets (Sira) of Ibn Ishāq is the most important source, which has several variants - interpolations and paraphrases - in the written traditions of Islamic historiography . They have been the subject of research in Islamic studies for over a hundred years.

Mohammed used to spend a month each year on Mount Hirā ' near Mecca to repent there. According to his own statements, the Archangel Gabriel (Arabic "Jibril") appeared to him around 610 . Ibn Ishaq's report lets Mohammed speak directly as the narrator of the episode:

“I was asleep when - the Archangel Gabriel - came to me with a silk scarf written on and said: 'Wear!' I replied, 'I'm not speaking.' Thereupon he pressed me into the (cloth) that I thought I was going to die ”. - After being asked four times, Mohammed then asked: “What should I present? - and I only said this out of fear that he would harass me so terribly again. Then he spoke ... "

It follows sura 96, verses 1-5:

“Carry forward in the name of your Lord who created, created man from an embryo. Pretend ... "

The Islamic Koranic exegesis - at-Tabarī , al-Qurtubī and others - interpret this double request with the words: “Speak the name of God through the Basmala / tasmiya when you recite.” The Tunisian scholar Tahir ben 'Ashur (died 1973) explains: "Pronouncing a written or memorized speech with the Basmala".

Ibn Ishaq continues:

“So I presented it. He let go and disappeared, but I woke up from my sleep and it seemed to me as if (these words) were written firmly in my heart. "

The first experience of revelation was, as the Islamic biography of the prophets says, a dream in which Mohammed was asked to recite an allegedly written text that was spoken in other traditional versions .

The decisive expression at the beginning of this sura is the request to Mohammed, which also occurs in other formulations in the Koran: “Therefore praise the name of your mighty Lord” ( fa-sabbiḥ bi-smi rabbi-ka l-ʿaẓīm ) and: “Think now the name of your Lord (or now pronounce the name of your Lord) ”( wa-ʾḏkur isma rabbi-ka ). The early Koran exegetes emphasized this meaning of the beginning of the surah in this sense; the point here is to recite the name of the only Lord and to call him "who created" and "taught man what he did not know (before)."

The first five verses of sura 96 ​​supposedly represent the beginnings of the revelations and thus the beginning of Muhammad's prophecy. Other traditions, however, want to see the beginnings of the revelations in sura 74, verses 1-7.

Muhammad's first followers

Mohammed (right) in front of his earliest followers. Illustration to al-Biruni's Compendium Athar al-Baqiya 'an al-Qurun al-Chaliya . The work is in the collection of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris ( Manuscrits Arabes )

Khadija was the first person to believe in Muhammad's message; the Islamic historiography they therefore considered to be the first Muslim in Mecca. After Khadija, ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib and Abū Bakr , the first caliph after Muhammad's death, were the first Muslims according to Islamic tradition.

Studies of this early Meccan period of prophecy have shown that the first followers of Muhammad came from the lower social classes of the city of Mecca: the "mustaḍʿafūn", the socially weak part of the trading population of Mecca. In the later course of events, the Meccans tried to steal the livelihoods of the Muslims by means of a trade boycott. This ended the public appearances of Muhammad in Mecca: he received - according to the Arab tribal laws - protection in the house of Arqam ibn Abi Arqam in Mecca (around 614) and ordered - according to historiography - some of his followers to go to Abyssinia , at that time a trading center the Meccans to emigrate (around 615).

The historians classify the first Muslims of the Meccan period according to these events: Muslims who converted before Muhammad's entry into the house of Arqam, Muslims who accepted Islam during Muhammad's stay in that house and the "emigrants" to Abyssinia. The social or even economic reasons for the emigration of Meccans to Abyssinia are not described in the early Arab sources, or only in vague outlines as isolated facts.

The contours of the time between 616 and 622 in Mecca can only be reconstructed historically, because the mostly contradicting reports of the oldest historiographers can only partially be reconciled with the assumed chronology of the Meccan revelations in the Koran exegesis. The content of the Meccan suras suggests that Mohammed initially described himself as a “warner” ( naḏīr , arab.نذير) understood his people, tolerated much of the religious status quo in Mecca and tried to introduce simple religious duties that were understandable for everyone:

"I am only told that I should (only) be a clear warning, nothing more."

- 38:70

"Blessed are the believers who are humble in their prayer, do not listen to (empty) talk, fulfill the (duty of) alms tax and abstain from sexual intercourse, except with their wives ..."

- 23: 1-6

Mecca, his place of birth, was also considered holy for him and - according to tribal laws - as a refuge for everyone:

"Didn't they see that we (in the Mecca area) made a sacred precinct that is safe while people around them are being dragged away (by force)?"

- 29:67

Contacting the residents of Yathrib and emigrating

Entrance to the cave on Mount Thaur, in which Mohammed and Abū Bakr are said to have hidden from the emigration, with the text of Sura 9:40. The cave is one of the holy places of Mecca to this day.

Initially, until around 614 - so it says in the above-mentioned report of the ʿUrwa to the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān - the influential representatives of the Quraish had no objections to Muhammad's teachings, which he spoke both publicly and in secret ("sirran") spread. It was only when he attacked the idolatry and polytheism of ancestors that a strong opposition to Mohammed and his followers formed. This was expressed in a series of violent attacks on the first Muslims in Mecca as well as on the person of Muhammad himself. Many, so it is said in this old report, distanced themselves from Muhammad at the time, and only "a few" remained "steadfast" .

Muhammad's message in Mecca failed not only because of the overwhelming power of the polytheists, but also because of the loss of an expandable base in the city's influential circles. His open appearance against the polytheistic religion in Mecca despite recognition of the highest shrine on the Arabian Peninsula - al-Kaaba -, his failed rapprochement with the residents of the city of Ta'if , the oppression of his followers in Mecca, but not least the death of his protector Abu Talib and his wife Khadijah (around 619) were the reasons for establishing contact with the residents of the city of Yathrib, 440 km north of Mecca . Influential citizens of Yathrib, which was later to be called “al-Madina” (actually “madīnat an-nabī”, German “the city of the prophet”), offered Mohammed and his followers protection and security in their city according to the tribal laws applicable at the time this is contractually stipulated between 621 and 622. This was the basis for his later emigration to this city known as the Hijra .

In the late phase of Muhammad's Meccan ministry before the emigration to Yathrib, the "children of Israel" and the "distant place of worship" ( al-masǧid al-aqṣā ; see sura 17 , verses 1-2) became the focus of his new monotheistic religion.

The final impetus for Mohammed to leave Mecca is said to have been that the Quraysh made a plan for his murder in the summer of 622 in the Dār an-Nadwa . The Qur'anic word in Sura 8:30 is related to this fact : “At that time, when the unbelievers were plotting against you in order to arrest you or even to kill you or to drive you away. Yes, they were plotting, and God plotting too. God is the best schemer. ”According to the biography of the prophet, he and his companion Abū Bakr hid for three days in a cave on Mount Thaur at the lower end of Mecca while Abū Bakr's daughter Asmā ' fed them both. The Koran word in Sura 9:40 is intended to allude to this fact: “God already gave him support when the two unbelievers drove him [from Mecca]. (Back then) when the two were in the cave, and when he (i.e. Mohammed) said to his companion, 'Don't be sad! God is with us.'"

The Medinan Period of Prophecy (622-630)

Muhammad's arrival in the oasis of Yathrib is dated on the 12th Rabīʿ al-awwal of the first Muslim lunar year (see Islamic calendar ), which corresponds to September 24, 622. At first he stayed with a certain Kulthūm ibn Hidn of the Aus in Qubā ', a southern suburb of Yathrib, while he held his meetings in the house of Sa desd ibn Chaithama, who also belonged to the Aus. The Muslims who emigrated with Mohammed built a mosque in Qubā 'with his followers from Yathrib . This Qubā 'mosque was probably the oldest mosque in Islam.

The fight against the Meccans

In Yathrib, which would later become known as Medina , Mohammed not only played the role of a prophet, but also that of an arbiter ( Ḥākim ), a social organizer, and a political leader and, over the course of time, a general. In the first months after the hijra he seems to have kept his initially small Muslim community - composed of the Meccan emigrants, the muhādschirūn , and the helpers from the two Medinan Qaila tribes, the Ansar - from confronting the Quraish . The Koran confirms this with the following verse, in which it says, looking back on the first days of Muhammad and the emigrants in Medina, that the Muslims were commanded:

"(...) 'Hold back your hands (from the fight) ...' (...)"

- 4:77

Finally, the verse was revealed which is identified by the Quranic exegesis as the first permission to fight:

“Those who fight (against the unbelievers) (according to a different reading; in the text: who are fought) have been given permission (to fight) because they have been wronged (beforehand). - God has the power to help them. - "

- 22:39

This verse, as well as similar ones, which were revealed against the background of the struggle against the Quraish and are considered the first verses to legitimize or call for the struggle against the Meccans, mainly referred to the emigrants, not the helpers. The latter had only undertaken to provide military support to Mohammed if he was attacked.

The actual war against Mecca was preceded by smaller undertakings, raids ("raids") on Meccan caravans. Historical sources - including several verses from the Koran - show that only the emigrants took part in these attacks.

The Badr Battle

The first major conflict between the Muslims and the Quraysh - the first expedition, in which, according to some accounts, Medinan Muslims also took part - was the Battle of Badr in 624. The Muslims who were looking for a Quraish caravan returning from Syria ambushed were caught by an ambush by a Meccan force led by Abu Sufyan . Despite their numerical inferiority and the fact that they were only equipped for a caravan raid and not for a battle, they emerged victorious from the battle. In addition it says in the Koran:

"God helped you to victory (at that time) in Badr, while you (on your part) were a modest, inconspicuous bunch."

- 3: 123

The victory over the Meccans at Badr has undoubtedly strengthened Mohammed's position in Medina.

Defense of the Meccan counterattack

The defeat suffered by the Quraish of Mecca at Badr dealt a hard blow to their pride. At the same time it also endangered the Meccan trade; for the Meccans were dependent on the cooperation of many tribes, and from some of these tribes an unruly attitude was now to be expected. Therefore, it was vital for them to prove that they were capable of taking complete revenge for injustices they had suffered. Ten weeks after Badr, Abu Sufyan ibn Harb , who had taken control of Mecca after the Battle of Badr, organized a first lightning raid on Medina, but withdrew after setting fire to two houses. In the months that followed, he managed to recruit 3,000 well-armed men. At the end of March 625, his expedition reached Medina and entered the oasis from the northwest corner. A military conflict known as the Battle of Uhud broke out at Mount Uhud . When it came to the actual confrontation after the usual duels at the beginning of the fight, the fortunes of war seemed to turn back in favor of the Muslims, who were already beginning to collect the booty. This caused a group of Muslim archers to leave their place to look for the booty as well. Among the Meccans, the prominent fighter Chālid ibn al-Walīd took advantage of this to create confusion in the ranks of the Muslims and to put them down. However, the Meccans did not take advantage of their victory, which they apparently only understood as the settlement of an outstanding bill, in such a way that they finally got rid of their adversary Mohammed, for example by taking Medina, but returned to Mecca immediately.

For the Muslims, Uhud was a hard defeat - not only because important men like Muhammad's uncle Hamza had fallen and Mohammed himself had been wounded, but above all because it became clear that one is apparently not so sure of God's support after all as it seemed after the overwhelming experience of Badr . In Sura 3 there is a long passage in which this defeat is interpreted theologically (Q 3: 140-160).

The Meccans soon realized that their victory at Uhud was not having a very lasting effect. Since Mohammed continued to disrupt Meccan trade and found allies for it with the Arab Bedouins , they were forced to take action against Medina again. At the beginning of the year 627 they appeared with a huge force before Medina, which also included several allied tribes. In Medina, the Muslims had meanwhile dug a trench around the less fortified parts of the settlement. Obviously this action was so surprising to the Meccans that they did not know of any suitable means of countering it. There was a lengthy siege, in the course of which diplomacy was probably carried out. The Meccans finally left without having achieved anything. Because of the trench, the Muslims to Medina had drawn these unsuccessful siege of Medina is by Meccan troops in Islamic history as " grave battle " ( ġazwat al-Handaq become known).

Al-Hudaibiya and the conquest of Mecca

Muhammad's entry into Mecca (right). His supporters destroy the idols displayed there (left). From Mirzā Muḥammad Rafīʿ (“Bāzil”) (1713–1781): Ḥamla-i-ḥaydarī (The attack of the lion [a poetic chronicle on Mohammed and the first four caliphs]), Kashmir 1808, Ms. suppl. pers. 1030 f. 305v in the collection of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris.

In the year 6 after the emigration to Medina there came the first contacts of Muhammad with representatives of the Quraish from Mecca; In March 628, the founder of the religion and his followers set out on a trip to Mecca to make the little pilgrimage ( ʿUmra ) there, which the Meccans knew how to prevent and signed a significant contract with him near the borders of the holy district of Mecca , at al-Hudaibiya. The contract contained five key points:

  • Armistice for ten years, according to other reports for two years;
  • Security for Muslims who want to make the pilgrimage in the future or who are on the trade routes to the south;
  • Muhammad's guarantee of security for the Quraish on their trade routes to the north;
  • Extradition to the Meccans of those Muslims who were supposed to flee to Medina without the permission of their patron saints;
  • Waiver of the small pilgrimage in the year of the conclusion of the contract, with a guarantee of the pilgrimage in the following year.

Through this treaty, the Quraish of Mecca recognized Mohammed as a full negotiating partner, albeit not as a prophet.

The document that has been handed down is called Muhammed b. 'Abdallah and does not contain any Islamic formulas. However, Muhammad's willingness to extradite all Muslim refugees to Medina to the Meccans caused unrest (for more on this see: The fall of Abu Basir and his followers after al-Hudaibiya).

The withdrawal of Muhammad and his renunciation of the ʿumra was another source of discontent in the ranks of his followers. The entire sura 48 ( al-Fath = success) deals with these historical events. Here, however, the revelation speaks of a clear success / victory ("fath") of the Muslims, which is not only as Mohammed's diplomatic success at al-Hudaibiya, but - in the retrospective of Islamic historiography and Koran exegesis - also as an indication of the subsequent conquest the oasis of Chaibar , the expulsion of the Jewish Banu al-Nadir (May / June 628) and the distribution of the booty among the dissatisfied Muslims since al-Hudaibiya. At the beginning of the final verse of this sura, Muhammad's position is formulated more clearly than ever before:

“Mohammed is the Messenger of God. And those who are with him (believers) are violent towards the unbelievers, but are compassionate among themselves. "

- 48:29

The foundations for the conquest of Mecca two years later had already been laid at al-Hudaibiya. Although Mohammed had allowed the wealthy Jews of Khaibar and their Arab allies to continue to cultivate the oasis that the Muslims had occupied, they were ordered to give half of the harvest to the 1,600 Muslims involved in the expedition. Muhammad's share was 1/5 of the total booty. Since the conditions prescribed by Mohammed, which amounted to the political and economic disempowerment of the Jewish groups in and around Chaibar, were not fulfilled, they were finally expelled from the region. The expulsion of all Jews from the Hejaz ( Hijaz ) was then one of the central tasks of the second caliph Umar .

After the conquest of Chaibar (May 628), Mohammed and his now 2,000 followers began his journey to Mecca in March 629 (as already mentioned above ) in order to carry out the small pilgrimage ( ʿumra ) there - as stipulated in the treaty of al-Hudaibiya . The Meccans had withdrawn from the city for three days to avoid any incidents at the sanctuary. After some members of influential extended families had embraced Islam, among them the two military talents Chālid ibn al-Walīd and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀs , who made a name for themselves in the campaigns of conquest after Muhammad's death (see the articles on the Ridda Wars and Islamic Expansion ) , the final capture of Mecca was only a matter of time. In January 630 the well-organized Muslim army set out for Mecca on the occasion of the breach of the above-mentioned treaty on the part of the Meccans.

Mohammed guaranteed general amnesty to anyone who did not intervene in the fighting. Hence Mecca was conquered by the Muslims with almost no bloodshed; 28 Meccans fell in the fighting, the others fled. Mohammed stayed in Mecca for two to three weeks, cleaned the sanctuary ( Kaaba ), and had all statues of gods removed from the sanctuary as well as from private homes and destroyed. In the vicinity of the city he had the sanctuaries of the gods al-Manāt and al-ʿUzzā destroyed and called on the Bedouin tribes to join Islam.

Internal politics in Medina

Merging of a new community

Yathrib, now al-Madina according to Arabic usage, had different social structures than Mecca at the time of the hijra. The population was made up of rival tribes and sub-tribes of the Aus and Khasradsch . There were also several Jewish clans, of which the Banu n-Nadir , Banū Quraiza and Qaynuqa 'were the most influential. The city also had residents who had become Muslims before the Hijra. The Medinan followers were called the "helpers" / "supporters" ( al-Ansar ). In addition, there were the Meccan followers of Muhammad, the "emigrants" ( Muhādschirūn ). There were other Jewish settlements north of Medina near Chaibar .

Mohammed made it his task to bring together all the tribes and sub-tribes of the Aus and Khasradsch, as well as the Jews and the emigrants from Mecca, in a single community ( Umma ). The so-called community order of Medina served for this purpose, the wording of which is preserved in Ibn Ishāq's biography of the prophets . Not only do all named representatives of Islam and Judaism have the same rights and duties, but the religions are also recognized; Jewish tribes, which were already in alliances with the Medinians in pre-Islamic times, form an umma with the believers (i.e. the Muslims): "The Jews have their religion ( dīn ) and the Muslims their religion". The "Ansar" and "Muhajirun" enjoy equality with one another. Mohammed also clearly defines his position in this contract: he is “the Messenger of God” and “the prophet”, but also simply calls himself “Mohammed”, who can be consulted in the event of disputes. Here the theocratic traits of the Medinan ummah stand out . The tribes and clans mentioned grant one another protection; the valleys around Yathrib are sacred to all contracting parties. The polytheists (“al- muschrik ūn”) are expressly excluded from the contract .

How the other contracts with the Jews in and around Medina mentioned in Islamic historiography were drafted in detail is not known today, as the terms of the contract in question have been handed down very differently. However, research basically assumes that there were such contracts or non-aggression pacts between Mohammed and the local Jewish tribes, in particular with the B. an-Naḍīr, Quraiẓa and Qaiynuqāʾ. These contracts, the content of which has been passed down controversially, are said to have been signed by the leaders of the three tribes mentioned. If the text of the treaty is different, all the texts that have come down to us agree in terms of content that the Jews will practice neutrality towards Muhammad's enemies and will not harbor any enmity against “Muhammad and his companions”. According to other reports - as with al-Wāqidī - "all the Jews in the city have made a treaty with him (Mohammed)."

A consistent demarcation from the "owners of scripts" ("ahl al-kitāb") was originally not the intention of Muhammad; for the recognition of the religion of the “other” articulated in the “Treaty of Medina” mentioned above is already clear from sura 109 (“the unbelievers”) revealed in Mecca:

“You unbelievers! I do not worship what you worship (...) You have your religion and I mean it. "

- 109

Historically, the addressees at that time of prophecy were the polytheists, against whom Mohammed had already campaigned in Mecca. In Medina the situation changed suddenly. Mohammed endeavored to sanction some of the ritual of the Jews, just as he understood how to integrate pre-Islamic rites into the pilgrimage ceremonies:

As-Safā and al-Marwa are among the cult symbols of God. If one goes on the (great) pilgrimage to the house (the Ka'ba) or the visiting trip (Umra), it is not a sin for him to make company with them. "

- 2: 158

At this point, exegesis of the Koran ( tafsir ) is a little difficult, because in the pre-Islamic times there were two gods in these places: Isāf and Nāʾila , around whom one used to make contact ( tawāf ). Other readings of the Quran point to controversial discussions about this phase in the pilgrimage ritual. The Koran commentator early Qatada ibn Di'āma (died 735-736) in his book of the pilgrimage ceremonies ( Kitab al-Manasik ) that in some Koran copies following variant as negation read: "... there is no blame on him with them to deal not close". Both places were then sanctioned in the codified Koran as stations of pilgrimage rites.

The dispute with the font owners

Initially, Muhammad was benevolent of both Jews and Christians and expected them to join him. Many verses of the Koran, however, confirm that the “owners of the scriptures” ( ahl al-kitāb ) rejected his ideas. These Quranic verses, called "provocative verses" ( āyāt at-tahaddī ), contain both the objections of the opponents and Muhammad's answers. The decisive accusation of the founder of the Arab religion was that Jews and Christians had forged their writings and altered their contents; thus he, Mohammed, is the herald of the only true monotheistic religion of Abraham . See also taḥrīf .

According to his self- image , Mohammed was not a prophet of a "new" religion, but the reformer of Abraham's monotheism:

"And they (i.e. the People of the Book) say, 'You must be Jews or Christians and you will be guided.' Say no! (For us there is only) the religion of Abraham, a Hanif - he was not a pagan! "

- 2: 135

“Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian. He was a (God) devoted Hanif and not a pagan. "

- 3:67

In modern times , the Arabic idiom gives musliman hanifan  /مسلما حنيفاThe latter verse gives rise to controversial interpretation, and the passage is translated as "He was a Muslim and Hanīf " (i.e. a God-seeking man). This then also implies that Abraham was the first Muslim , an interpretation that the classical Koran exegesis ( tafsīr ) does not confirm. Even the Kaaba ( al-Kaʿba ) in the center of the Meccan sanctuary goes back to Ibrahim / Abraham and his son Isma'il according to Mohammed's teaching , only that it was desecrated early on by the polytheists and idolaters - in a historically unreliable epoch. Mohammed saw his task in restoring the old, original and pure state of monotheism according to Abraham. The exclusion of the other religious communities, Christians and Jews, was a political-religious program.

The opposition to Mohammed in Medina

The opposition to Mohammed and his Meccan followers was formed by the Jews who were settled in and around Medina, as well as influential Arab families of the Banu Aus Allaah, who, unlike their tribal comrades Mohammed, resisted for a number of years. Although research points to the rapid spread of Islam even before Muhammad's arrival in the city, one does not fail to recognize that there were also influential groups in the ranks of the Medinese whose conversion to Islam took place years later. In addition to relevant news from the sira and maghazi literature, the early Islamic genealogists also confirm the close contacts between the Aus Allaah and the Jewish tribes of the Banu 'n-Nadir and Banu Qainuqa', which are likely to have been decisive in their rejection of Islam. They did not accept Islam until 626–627.

The policies conducted against the Jewish tribes manifested themselves in the threatened expropriation of land and property, which is handed down both in the historiography and in the authentic hadith collections of al-Buchari and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj and is then justified legally in the law books . Al-Bukhari said in a report by the companion of the Prophet Abū Huraira :

“While we were in the mosque, the Messenger of God came to us and said: 'Go (with me) to the Jews.' So we moved out until we reached their schools. The prophet stood up in front of them and called out to them: 'Jews! Accept Islam and you will fare well. ' They replied, 'Abu' l-Qasim, you delivered the message. ' He replied: 'I will do that too' and then he called out to them a second time, to which the Jews replied: 'Abu' l-Qasim, you have delivered the message. ' Then he called out to them a third time and said: 'Take note that the land belongs to God and his Messenger and that I will drive you (from here). Whoever of you has property should sell it. If he does not do this, take note that the land belongs to God and his Messenger. "

Here the basic ideas for the later legal norm were laid, according to which - as Mohammed is allowed to speak on his deathbed - no two religions are allowed on the Arabian Peninsula . This principle was then put into practice under the first caliphs.

Expulsion of the Jewish tribes

After the victory over the Meccans at Badr, Muhammad's position in Medina was so strong that a little later, in April 624, he was able to have the Jewish Banū Qainuqāʿ , who lived as goldsmiths and traders in the city, expelled , initially to Wādī al-Qurā - north of Medina -, later to Syria.

After unsuccessful negotiations with their leader Ḥuyayy b.Aḫṭab and after a long siege of their settlements and the destruction of their palm groves by Muhammad's troops in August 625, the Jewish Banū n-Nadīr finally cleared the area around Medina with around six hundred camels and initially settled in the oasis from Chaibar on. From there, Mohammed expelled them again in 628; they fled to Syria. At that time Mohammed married the Jewish woman Ṣafiyya , the daughter of Ḥuyayy b.Aḫṭab, who fell to him as booty and became a Muslim. According to the exegesis of the Koran, the entire sura 59 ( al-Ḥašr , German "The Assembly") is dedicated to the expulsion of the Banu Nadir:

“If God had not determined the banishment for them, he would have punished them in this world (in a different way). But in the hereafter they have to expect the punishment of hellfire. This for the fact that they opposed God and his prophet (?) (…) If you cut down palm trees (on the property of the Banū Naḍīr) - or left them -, it was done with God's permission. He also wanted to put the wrongdoers to shame [in this way]. "

- 59: 3-5

According to Islamic tradition, as a result of the collaboration between the Jewish tribe of the Banū Quraiza and the Meccans, during the battle of the trenches , Mohammed had the men of the tribe who were involved in the collaboration executed. The Banu Quraiza had already been farming southeast of the city in pre-Islamic times and - like the Banū ʾn-Naḍīr - were allies of the Arab tribe of the Banū Aus .

According to Islamic historiography, such as Ibn Ishāq , the violation of a contract with Mohammed - which the historians do not describe in detail - was the reason for the siege of the fortresses of the Banu Quraiza by Mohammed's troops. Muḥammad ibn Saʿd already mentions the alleged contract in his class register as a kind of "agreement" and as a mutual guarantee of security ( walṯu ʿahdin = weak, insecure agreement). It is emphasized several times in Islamic legal doctrine that such an agreement or arrangement had no legally binding character as a dhimma . In modern Islamic studies , besides political and economic reasons, above all treasonous activities or the representation of a military danger - even after an expulsion from the oasis - of the Banu Quraiza, but no breach of contract as a reason for the execution. Muslim scholars tend to believe that the execution was necessary for the survival of the Islamic community of the time. In doing so, they emphasize the - actual or supposed - guilt of Huyayy ibn Akhtab, who instigated the Quraiza to treason and must therefore be considered the main person responsible for the execution.

The Banū Aus, now influential helpers (Anṣār) of Mohammed, appealed to him to show leniency towards their old ally from the pre-Islamic period. The Banu Quraiza surrendered unconditionally and left their fortresses. Mohammed left the decision of the fate of the Banu Quraiza to the tribal leader of the Banū Aus himself: Saʿd ibn Muʿādh . He ordered all men to be killed, women and children taken prisoner and their belongings to be divided among the Muslims as booty.

During the siege, the Banu Quraiza behaved formally correctly and lent the Muslims shovels for digging the trench while they were working on the trench. However, they supplied the attackers with provisions and negotiated with them in secret. In addition, they were on the verge of stabbing Mohammed and his followers in the back.

Accordingly, the revelation mentions these events narrative and only from the retrospective and refers to both the "trench warfare" and the destruction of the Banu Quraiza in this sense:

“And God sent the unbelievers back with their grudges (including), without any benefit (from their enterprise). And he spared the believers from fighting. God is strong and powerful. And he caused those of the people of the Scriptures who supported them (i.e. the unbelievers) to come down from their castles and terrified them, so that you could partly kill them and partly capture them. And he gave you their land, their dwellings and their property as an inheritance, and (in addition) land that you had not (until then) set foot on. God has the power to do everything. "

- 33: 25-27

The Koran exegesis regards further verses of the Koran as a sign of the fulfillment of God's will against the Jewish enemies - especially against the Banu Quraiza - the Medinan community of Muslims:

“Many of the people of the Scriptures would like to make you unbelievers again after you have believed, because they feel envious of themselves (...) But do not credit it (them) and be indulgent (and wait) until God comes with his decision! He has the power to do everything. "

- 2: 109

See also sura 5, verses 41 and 52 and sura 8, verse 58, the contents of which the exegetes connect with the expulsion of the Banū ʾl-Naḍīr or the destruction of the Banu Quraiza.

Mohammed received from the booty, inter alia. Raiyḥāna , whom he took in as a concubine. She is believed to have adopted Islam, according to some reports. The annihilation of the Banu Quraiza, first depicted in the historiography of the early 2nd Muslim century, has also left its mark on Islamic jurisprudence, in the discussion of the treatment of prisoners of war and their descendants (see Banu Quraiza ).

With the annihilation of the Banu Quraiza, the members of the Arab-born Banu Kilab ibn 'Amir, the allies of the Banu Quraiza, were also executed. Mohammed married one of her wives, al-Naschāt (variant: al-Shāt) bint Rifā'a, but rejected them after a short time. While the women and children of the Banu Quraiza were permitted to be enslaved, there are no reports that al-Nashat bint Rifa'a was also a slave. Michael Lecker concludes from this that the Arab women captured in the fortresses of the Quraiza may not have been enslaved; alternatively, however, it is also possible that their tribesmen have ransomed them.

In contemporary research on Islam, the attempt was made to relativize “the atrocity against the Kuraiza, which is unusual compared to the other Jewish tribes”: W. Arafat questioned the credibility of the relevant reports of early Islamic historiography and claimed that only individual persons who guilty of betraying Mohammed, were executed. His remarks were refuted by Meir J. Kister in a detailed account of the events based on the Maghazi and Sira literature.

According to Rudi Paret , the Jews in and around Medina were not fought because of their beliefs and then expelled or killed, but because they formed self-contained groups in the Islamic community of Medina, which for the Islamic community of that time was always, but above all, one Threats from foreign opponents could become dangerous and in every major conflict with the Quraish they turned out to be “ very dubious allies ”. Paret emphasizes that Mohammed never attacked the entire Jewish population of Yathrib, but rather individual Jewish tribes. According to Watt , the Banu Quraiza were executed because their behavior in the battle of the trenches was viewed as a betrayal of the Medinan community; Mohammed was not ready to tolerate such behavior and decided to remove this weak point in the oasis.

The German orientalist Rudi Paret judges Muhammad's warfare as follows:

“But Mohammed must be measured by the standard of his own time. After the Qurai'a had surrendered to him at mercy and disgrace, it was generally accepted that he was perfectly justified not to show mercy. As strange and inhuman as it may sound, in public opinion he was guilty of having given orders to cut down several of the Banū Naḍīr palms, but not because he had more than half a thousand in a single day Jews jumped over the blade. "

This view, shared by some researchers, according to which the execution was not unusual in terms of place and time, has recently been questioned by Michael Lecker.

Ritual reforms: changing the direction of prayer

The earliest sources on the life of Muhammad unanimously report the direction of prayer of the Prophet during his Meccan period, before emigrating to Medina. During the prayer he stood between the southern and eastern corners of the Kaaba, where the black stone was. Thus he oriented himself both towards the Meccan sanctuary and - from the south - towards Jerusalem (bait al-maqdis), the prayer direction of the Jews and Christians of the Eastern Church. It was not until 17 months after the emigration, in the month of Rajab , that the direction of prayer changed from Jerusalem to Mecca. According to a variant received from Ibn Isḥāq in the tradition of his disciple Ibn Bukair, Mohammed performed the prayer in Minā, eight kilometers east of Mecca, in the direction of the Kaaba. Whether or not Jerusalem was also taken into account is not even hinted at in this episode. The direction of prayer was changed according to the revelation of sura 2, verse 143 (for more on this see qibla )

After Taking Mecca: The Last Years (630–632)

Connection of the Arab tribes

The strongest tribes around Mecca and at-Tā'if - Thaqīf and Hawāzin - were disempowered towards the end of January 630. The latter could only be defeated with great difficulty by Muslim troops near Hunain on the way to at-Tā'if, about which even the Koran gives information:

“God has (yet) helped you to victory in many places, (so) also on the day of Hunain, (at that time) when your (great) crowd pleased you (and made you self-confident). But it did not help you, and you became afraid and afraid. Then you turned your back (to flee). Then God sent down his sakīna on his messenger and on the believers, and he sent down troops that you did not see (from heaven) and punished the unbelievers. That is the reward of those who disbelieve. "

- Sura 9 : 25-26

The destruction of the main goddess al-Lāt in at-Tā'if was undertaken by a former enemy of Muhammad: Abu Sufyān , who had accepted Islam with other clan and tribal leaders in the run-up to the conquest of Mecca. The ninth year after the “Hijra” (630–631) is called the “year of the Arab delegations” to the prophets to Medina who had joined Islam in the biography of Mohammed.

The military victories in the south were followed by a less successful expedition to the north, as far as the southern border of the Byzantine Empire , to Tabūk, which ended in a draw as a failed foray (see Campaign to Tabūk ). This campaign led by Mohammed in 630 against the Byzantines and above all against their Arab allies, from which many Medinians and Bedouins who had already converted to Islam stayed away, was found in the often quoted verses of Sura 9 ( At-Tauba ) as a declaration of war on non-Muslims Outside world its precipitation:

“Fight those who do not believe in God and Judgment Day and who do not forbid what God and His messenger forbade and who are not of the true religion - from those who received the Scriptures - (fight against them) until they Pay tribute meekly out of hand! "

- 9:29

Against the historical background of the events of the year 630, this and the following verses call for Christians to be fought until they become tributaries. These verses are also called āyāt al-dschizya, the jizya verses, the further discussion and implementation of which should be reserved for the legislature of Islamic jurisprudence.

The appearance of Muhammad in the north meant that some communities, Christian and Jewish, submitted to him: the Christian prince Yuhannā in Aila - today: Aqaba -, the residents in Adhruh and the Jews of the port city of Makna . Ibn Ishāq , the best-known author of a biography of the prophets in the 8th century, reports that Mohammed left 18 mosques on the caravan route from Medina to Tabuk, which at that time were probably small places of prayer. This meant that the entire northern region was designated as an Islamic area and part of the Medinan ummah - also de jure. After his return to Medina, Mohammed no longer personally took over the leadership of the campaigns against Arab tribes on the peninsula as far as the East Jordan Valley , but passed them on to his companions ( sahāba ).

For the post-Mohammed conquests see Islamic Expansion .

The affair about the "cult site of the chicane" ( masdschid ad-dirar )

The opposition in the ranks of the 'Amr b. 'Auf is mentioned in sura 9, verse 107-108 and in the corresponding traditions of the Koran exegetes.

"And (as for) those who (have made (literally taken) a (their own place of worship) to harass (the ambassadors?), Indulge in unbelief and cause a rift among the believers and use as a base (?) for (certain) people who used to wage war against God and his messenger (or: for one who was ... waged war) - and they must swear that they did it with the best of intentions. Never stand (to prayer) A place of worship that was founded on the fear of God from day one deserves this rather ... "

The exegesis dates the entire sura to the year 630; the above verse was written after Muhammad's return from the campaign to Tabuk against the Byzantines on the Syrian border.

The Koran verse makes the rivalry between two mosques in Medina clear. On the one hand there was the mosque / cult site of the Prophet, which was "founded on the fear of God ", on the other hand the mosque / cult site " the chicane "مسجد الضرار / Masǧidu'D-Dirar that at another location in Medina, the controversial reportedly Abu 'Amir, a well-known in Medina Hanif said to have been founded and opponents of Mohammed, with the goal of prayer is not in the Prophet's Mosque in Qubā' , but in the own mosque dedicated to the clan of 'Amr ibn' Auf. The oldest Koran exegesis speaks here of a cult site of the hypocrites (munafiqun), the destruction of which Mohammed is said to have ordered after his return from the campaign to Tabuk, according to the revelation of the above Koran verses.

The farewell pilgrimage and the death of Muhammad

At the end of January 632, Mohammed began the great pilgrimage to Mecca, which was to go down in history as the farewell pilgrimage ; At the beginning of March 632 he reached Mecca and made the pilgrimage with his followers, in the course of which all the details of the pilgrimage ceremonies and the associated legal ritual obligations, including the integration of pre-Islamic customs, were determined. According to Islamic tradition, sura 5, verse 3 was part of Muhammad's famous speech on Mount ʿArafat , a kind of legacy to his followers:

"Today I have completed your religion for you (so that nothing is missing from it) and completed my grace to you, and I am satisfied that you have Islam as your religion."

- 5: 3

The following words in the speech, which are quoted in the Islamic world up to modern times, are also used in extra-Koranic, but with impressive expressiveness:

“I left something clear and distinct for you; if you hold on to it, you will never go astray: God's book and the sunnah of his prophet. People! Hear my words and understand them! You should know that every Muslim is a brother to a Muslim and that Muslims are brothers (to one another) ... "

The farewell pilgrimage, also known as "the pilgrimage of Islam", was the culmination of Muhammad's work. In the traditional literature it is reported that on the way back from the farewell pilgrimage in al-Abwā 'Mohammed stopped at the grave of his mother Āmina, who had died a pagan, to ask for her forgiveness. According to the exegesis of the Koran , this is said to have been the reason for the revelation of sura 9, verse 113:

“The Prophet and those who believe must not ask (God) forgiveness for the Gentiles - even if they are relatives (of them) - after they have (finally) realized that they (because of their stubborn disbelief) will be inmates of hellfire. "

A sudden illness led to his unexpected death on June 8, 632 (March 13, 11th AH ) in the house of his wife ʿA'ischa (Aischa). The news of his death caused great confusion in Medina, so that, as several historiographers report, his body was neglected for a whole day until it was then buried under the house of ʿA'ishah. His tomb - with that of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar ibn al-Ḫaṭṭāb - is today within the " Prophet's Mosque ", the main mosque of Medina.

How unimaginable his death must have been for the Muslims, Ibn Isḥāq describes very impressively in his biography of the prophets; According to tradition, the emergence of which can be traced back to the early first Muslim century, the later caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Ḫaṭṭāb is said to have even resorted to elements of the Jewish prophetic history and thus questioned the death of Muhammad:

“Some of the hypocrites claim that the Messenger of God died. However, the Messenger of God did not die, but went to his Lord like Moses the son of ʿImrāns once did and stayed away from his people for forty days, but then returned after it was claimed that he had died. With God! The Messenger of God will return just as Moses returned, and he will cut off the hands and feet of those who claimed that the Messenger of God had died! "

According to the biography of the prophet, Abu Bakr, who would soon be Muhammad's successor, communicated the news of his death with the following words (according to Ibn Ishaq):

"People! Whoever worshiped Mohammed (I tell him): Mohammed died. Whoever has worshiped the only God (I say to him): God lives and does not die. "

Then he recited the following verse from the Koran:

“And Mohammad is only a messenger. There have been (various other) ambassadors before him. Will you turn around when he dies (a peaceful death) or is killed (in battle)? He who turns back will not harm (God) with it. But God will reward (it) those who are grateful (to him). "

- 3: 144

The creation of the Islamic "umma"

In addition to his self-image of being a prophet and messenger of God, Mohammed also endeavored to unite the rival Arab tribes resident in his immediate vicinity and to integrate them into a community of Muslims ( umma ) under his leadership. How fragile the state structure he left behind became apparent immediately after his death. In the "arcade of the Banu Sa'ida" Saqifat Bani Sa'ida  /سقيفة بني ساعدة / Saqīfatu Banī Sāʿida in Medina, the rival groups of the Medinan Ansar - al-Aus and al-Khazradsch - fought each other under the leadership of Sa'd ibn 'Ubada, whom they nominated as successor, and the Meccan emigrants with their spokesman ʿUmar ibn al-Chattāb on the successor question. The division of power among the Meccans (dominated by the Quraish tribe) and the Medinan Ansar according to the rule: "From us a commander as well as from you a commander" ( minnā amīrun wa-minkum amīrun ), failed because of Umar ibn al-Chattab's suggestion, who proposed the old companion of Muhammad, Abū Bakr , as his successor (caliph). The primary task of Abu Bakr as caliph was to fight the rebellious Arab tribes in the time of the Ridda and to subordinate them to the Medinan umma created by Mohammed, the so-called community of Muslims.

Islamic worship of Mohammed

Mohammed as a prophet and messenger of God

In Islam, Mohammed is regarded as a prophet ( nabī ) and messenger of God ( rasūl Allāh ), to whom the word of God ( Allah ) was revealed in the Koran . In the Koran it is called "the seal of the prophets" ( خاتم النبيين / ḫātam an-nabiyyīn , sura 33 , verse 40). This is interpreted to mean that he was the last of all prophets sent by God. The pious Muslim feels obliged to use the eulogy Sallā Llāhu ʿalaihi wa-sallam (صلى الله عليه وسلم / 'God bless him and give him salvation') should always be added. This formula is known as Tasliya . In accordance with the infallibility ( Isma ) attributed to him , the behavior of Muhammad , which has been handed down through hadiths, is a binding model for Muslims.

Miracle reports

In the prophets' biographies there are not only reports about Muhammad's actions in the most varied of life situations, but also stories about miracles that are said to have announced his prophethood even before his birth or to have confirmed it during his lifetime. This includes, for example, the story that Muhammad's father ʿAbdallāh, shortly before he married Ehemina, met a woman who offered him a hundred camels if he would attend her immediately. However, ʿAbdallāh refused and instead went to Āmina, who then became pregnant with the Messenger of God. When Mohammed's father went to the woman who had offered himself to him the next day, she was no longer interested in him and explained that the light that accompanied him had gone from him. This is the starting point of the notion, widespread in Sufi and Shiite circles, of the pre-existing “Muhammadan light” ( nūr Muḥammadī ), which was created before Adam and then wandered through Adam and the prophets through all of Muhammad's ancestors to himself.

Another story tells of a trade trip by Muhammad to Syria, during which he is said to have met the monk Bahīrā , who discovered the seal of prophethood (a birthmark) between his shoulders and saw in him the prophetic signs that Jews and Christians also found in their writings handed down. This legend can already be found in Ibn Ishāq's biography of the prophets and is also mentioned in a slightly modified form in the Syrian-Christian tradition of the 9th century.

Depiction of Muhammad's "opening of the chest" in the Persian manuscript Tarichnama by Balami from the 14th century
Depiction of the splitting of the moon in a Persian manuscript from the 16th century, Sächsische Landesbibliothek Dresden

In a further narrative, which is linked to the Koran word in sura 94: 1 “Have we not widened your chest?” And is available in different versions, a wonderful “opening of the chest” is reported. In the versions of the narrative listed in the hadith collections of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj and al-Bukhari , this event took place when Mohammed was already an adult. The event is located at the Zamzam fountain and the cleansing of Muhammad's heart takes place with the water of this fountain. Harris Birkeland, who has investigated the legends about the opening of the chest, suspects that this version is an old calling story, which was only later pushed into the background by the tale of Muhammad's calling on Mount Hirāʾ . In other versions of the narrative, the story is relocated to Muhammad's childhood. In the version narrated by Ibn Ishāq , it is said that three angels visited the young Mohammed, took him up a mountain and laid him there. The first slit open his chest, took out his entrails, and washed them with snow. The second pulled out his heart, produced a black point from it, which he threw at Satan, and filled the heart with a substance of light. The third angel closed his body again and weighed it against ten men, Mohammed being heavier than all of them. Then the three angels flew away again. The narrative was to show that Muhammad's heart had been purified and prepared for the receipt of divine revelation before he was called to be a prophet.

The miracle of the so-called “splitting of the moon” ( inšiqāq al-qamar ) is also famous . Accordingly, at Muhammad's request, God split the moon in two and then put it back together again, which was allegedly also observed in India. The idea of ​​this miracle is linked to the Qur'anic verse: “The hour is drawn, and the moon split” ( Sura 54 : 1). Other accounts report that Mohammed performed various food, water and healing miracles.

The heavenly journey of the prophet

Islamic historiography has also enriched the Meccan period of prophecy with two important events that have had a lasting impact on the image of Muhammad for posterity:

  • the ascension ( al-miʿrāǧ ) from the Kaʿba shrine to heaven on Ramadan 27 , 18 months before the relocation to Yathrib and
  • the so-called nocturnal journey ( al-isrāʾ ) to Jerusalem, which is said to have taken place 17 days before the hijra to Yathrib.

Historiography not only remains imprecise on dating issues, but strives to bring both events together and summarize them in Muhammad's nocturnal trip to Jerusalem. Because from there, from the Jerusalem Temple Mount , on which the Dome of the Rock ( qubbat aṣ-ṣaḫra ) was later built, Mohammed is said to have ascended to heaven. Before that he is said to have led a prayer with all biblical prophets including Jesus . After a brief admonishing encounter with God, legend has it that he went back to Mecca with the Archangel Gabriel . In addition to the historiography, both episodes are dealt with in detail and controversially by traditional literature ( hadith ) and the Koran exegesis, in order to harmonize the numerous traditions since the first Muslim century as far as possible in the light of sura 17, verse 1. At-Tabarī has compiled the most important variants of this episode in his monumental Quran commentary (tafsir). The identification of "the distant place of worship" in sura 17, verse 1 with Jerusalem can be demonstrated for the first time in the early Koranic exegesis, when the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān showed interest in the place, which is holy for both Christians and Jews began with the construction of the Dome of the Rock. It should be noted that among the building inscriptions from the Umayyad period inside the Dome of the Rock, which consist exclusively of quotations from the Koran, Sura 17, verse 1 is not included. Even in the Aqsa Mosque, this Koranic verse is first mentioned in an inscription from the 11th century. In various traditions, the story about Muhammad's ascension is preceded by the story about the wonderful opening in the chest.

Muhammad's birthday party

In the 11th century it became customary at the Fatimid court to celebrate the Prophet's birthday on the 12th Rabīʿ al-awwal . In the 12th century, this festival was also adopted by Sunni rulers. The first Sunni ruler to officially celebrate the festival was Nur ad-Din . In just a few decades, the custom of celebrating the Prophet's birthday ( maulid ) spread across large parts of the Sunni- Islamic world. It is still one of the most important festivals in the Sunni Islamic area today.

The veneration of the tomb of the prophets in Medina

The main mosque of Medina with the tomb of Muhammad . Steel engraving (19th century)

In the tenth century, the tomb of the Prophet in Medina also became an object of worship and a destination for pious visits. As justification for the visit of the prophet tomb was made to various traditional prophecies, such as: "Whoever visits my grave, which is due (one day) my intercession" ( Man Zara Qabri waǧabat la-hu šafā'atī ) and "Who the Hajj takes place and not Visited my grave, acted rude to me ”. Believers began to take earth from the Prophet's tomb to obtain the Prophet's baraka . The tomb of the Prophet, known as “the exalted chamber” ( al-ḥuǧra aš-šarīfa ), was expanded over the course of the Middle Ages. Some Maliki scholars even made a visit to Muhammad's tomb in Medina a compulsory duty for every Muslim. From the late Middle Ages, the idea spread that Muhammad was alive in his grave and greeting everyone who greets him. The veneration of the tomb of the prophets also met with criticism, especially among Hanbali scholars. Ibn Taimīya and his disciple Ibn Qaiyim al-Jschauzīya forbade visiting the tomb of the Prophet in Medina as an unlawful innovation and said that only the Prophet's mosque should be visited. This position was later followed by the Wahhabis . In the course of enforcing their restrictive teaching in what is now Saudi Arabia, the cult around the tomb of the Prophet was banned.

The representation of Muhammad in the Christian chronicles of the early days

Probably the oldest source in which Mohammed is mentioned goes back to the Syrian chronicle of Thomas the Presbyter , who wrote around 640:

"On February 4th, 634, early in the morning, there was a battle between the Byzantines and the Arabs of Muhammad."

According to this, Mohammed was already portrayed as a military leader by contemporaries. In the anonymous history of Armenia , which ends with the victory of Mu'awiya I in the first civil war (656-661) and which is generally attributed to Bishop Sebeos , Mohammed is quoted with the following words - addressed to his followers:

“You are the sons of Abraham, and through you God wants to keep the promise he made to Abraham and his posterity. Love the God of Abraham, go out and take possession of the land that God gave your father Abraham, for no one will be able to fight you in battle, for God is with you. "

In the "Chronica minora" III., In the " Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium ", Mohammed is also understood as a military leader:

“In the year 940 of Alexander (d. I. 628-629) Heraclius and the Byzantines entered Constantinople. Mohammed and the Arabs set out from the south and entered the country and subjugated it. "

Here, too, it is clear that Mohammed initiated these conquests and led some of them himself. The earliest Christian chronicles from the middle of the 7th century confirm that Mohammed saw himself as a renewer of Abraham's monotheism. They also state in detail that it was Mohammed who “introduced the God of Abraham to the Arabs” - according to the Armenian chronicler Sebeos - and gave them new laws. Johannes bar Penkaye , a monk in northern Mesopotamia who, according to his own information, lived in the “67 Year of the Rule of the Arabs "(i.e. 686-687) wrote, reports:

"They (the Arabs) hold so firmly to the tradition of Muhammad that they punish anyone who disregards his (Muhammad's) laws with death."

In the Chronicle of Zuqnin , in the "Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium", it says at the beginning of the presentation of Islam:

“Since he (Mohammed) described to them (the Arabs) the only God and they (the Arabs) defeated the Byzantines under his leadership, and since he gave them laws according to their wishes, they call him 'Prophet' ( nbîyâ ) and 'Messenger '( rasùlâ ) of God. "

The representation of Muhammad in medieval and modern Europe

Mohammed in hell . Representation of Giovanni da Modena in the Basilica of San Petronio , 15th century .

"There is hardly a figure in world history who has been portrayed so negatively in the Christian West for a long time, but then been praised just as effusively as Mohammed."

Negative representations

Illustration from the biography of Muhammad by Humphrey Prideaux, published 1699. The picture shows Muhammad with a sword and a crescent moon in his hand as he steps on a globe, a cross and the Ten Commandments.

The Christian debate with the founder of the religion of Islam begins a few decades after Muhammad's death, in the 7th century. One of the oldest and most influential fighters against Islam is the theologian and church father John of Damascus . His dogmatic work "Source of Knowledge" ( Greek Pege gnoseos ) contains, among other things, an extensive presentation of the heresies in Christianity. This “Book of Heresies” ends with a short description of Islam, which John does not designate as such and also does not perceive it as an independent religion, but rather represents the Ishmaelite belief that has prevailed up to now as the forerunner of the Antichrist . Ishmael , from which the term "Ishmaelites" is derived, has been considered the ancestor of the Arabs since the Greek church historian Sozomenos , even before the emergence of Islam, according to the Bible ( Gen 16  EU ). The “Book of Heresies” goes on to say that the Ishmaelites were idolaters until the time of Emperor Herakleios and were then misled by a false prophet “Mamed”.

Through John of Damascus, the designation “false prophet” or “pseudo prophet” became, as it were, a standard designation for Muhammad in countless Christian polemics against Islam. An example of this is Off Machomet the false prophete in Fall of Princes by the 15th century English monk and writer John Lydgate . The designation of Muhammad as the "forerunner of the Antichrist", which also goes back to John of Damascus, was taken up again in the 16th century during the Turkish wars . In 1529, in the year of the Turkish siege of Vienna , Martin Luther wrote the two writings On War Against the Turks and the Sermon in the Army Against the Turks . By drawing on visions from DanEU , he describes the Turks and the Pope as common enemies of orthodox Christianity. In the succession of Luther, the theory of the “two antichrists” arose in Protestantism - the Pope in the Occident and Mohammed in the Orient.

In the course of the Middle Ages, Mohammed was repeatedly portrayed as a Christian heretic or heretic. A famous example of this can be found in Canto 28 of the Inferno , where Dante sees Mohammed and Ali as narrators , who are counted among those who split the faith and cause discord. The reasons given for Mohammed's heresy are on the one hand his insufficient knowledge of the Old and New Testaments, on the other hand his encounter with a monk named Bahīrā or Sergius, who is referred to as either a follower of Arius or Nestorius . Both Arianism and Nestorianism were considered heresies in the Middle Ages.

In addition, Mohammed was often accused of fraud in European literature. In the Legenda aurea , a popular religious book by Jacobus de Voragine , the legend is spread that Mohammed trained a dove in order to simulate his inspiration from the Holy Spirit for the Saracens . This story has also been depicted. 1697, the English theologian and orientalist Humphrey Prideaux published (1648-1724), a biography of Muhammad under the title: The True Nature of Imposture fully display'd in the Life of Mahomet ( "The True Nature of trickery, fully demonstrating the life of Muhammad") . This book also contained a polemic against the Deists , with Islam being portrayed as a model of “deist” currents which, in the wake of anti-Trinitarianism , rejected the doctrine of the Trinity .

In Chronographia , a work by the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes , which soon became known in Western Europe through the Latin translation by Anastasius Bibliothecarius , it is said that Mohammed suffered from epilepsy . This claim is often linked to Muhammad's alleged intent to deceive. The Dominican Ricoldo da Monte di Croce († 1320) wrote in his treatise Contra legem Saracenorum ("Against the Saracen Law"):

"But since he suffered from the 'falling sickness', he claimed an angel was talking to him."

This writing was translated several times, including in 1542 into German by Martin Luther under the title Laying of the Alcoran .

In the French chansons de geste , which are aimed at listeners from all sections of the population, the battles with the Saracens play an important role. In these epics Mahomet or Mohammed never appears as a prophet, but is revered as the highest and most powerful god of the Saracens, but only in times of happiness. In Roland's song , one of the oldest chansons de geste, it says that after a lost battle, the Saracens pushed Mohammed into a trench, where he was bitten and trampled by pigs and dogs. Such descriptions of the shameful end of Muhammad illustrate the feelings of hatred and contempt that prevailed in Europe towards the prophet of Islam throughout the Middle Ages.

The second Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683 inspired the Catholic Baroque preacher Abraham a Sancta Clara to write a pamphlet in the same year in which Christians are called upon to fight against the Mahometanic error and Turkish hereditary enemy . This work was Friedrich Schiller's model for the Capuchin sermon in Wallenstein's camp .

On the way to a differentiated presentation

Voltaire's Mahomet the Prophet

In the Age of Enlightenment , the image of Muhammad and Islam began to be relativized in Europe. De religione Mohammedica libri duo by the Dutch orientalist Adrianus Reland appeared in Latin in 1705 and was soon translated into numerous languages, including German. In his two-volume work on the Muslim religion, the author criticized the previous occupation with Islam, as it was not based on a thorough study of the sources. In France, Henri de Boulainvilliers (1658–1722) fought fanaticism, religious narrow-mindedness and intellectual intolerance with his biography of Mohammed, Pierre Bayle , but above all Voltaire with his play Mahomet the Prophet , which premiered in 1741 and was fundamentally directed against the Catholic Church. It is true that in Voltaire's five-act tragedy , which was canceled in 1742 after pressure from the clergy, after three performances in Paris , Mohammed is still made into a gross, blatant cheater, murderer and voluptuary , as Herder's wife Caroline criticized in a letter to Goethe's friend Karl Ludwig von Knebel . Voltaire was aware of this deficiency and tried to make up for it in his monumental Essai sur les mœurs et l'esprit des nations , first published in 1753 . In it Mohammed is portrayed as a lawgiver and conqueror, whereas his prophethood takes a back seat. Goethe translated Voltaire's drama into German; his poem Mahomets Gesang is a key work of Sturm und Drang .

The great British historian Edward Gibbon , a contemporary of Voltaire, saw Mohammed as a “lawgiver” and pointed out his importance as the founder of a world empire. He contradicted the presumed existence of epilepsy and described this as "a silly, invented by the Byzantines slander". But he also criticized Mohammed, e. For example, the fact that he "abused the rights of a prophet" especially in matters of marriage.

In the 19th century, the Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle dedicated an entire chapter to Mohammed in his six-part book On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History . He glorifies him as a natural "hero" who creates history and places him in a row with Dante, Shakespeare, Napoleon or Luther.

The 1836 Damen Conversations Lexicon contains the following critical entry on Mohammed:

"Large families of nations, in which at a certain moment the entire physical forces with their mental faculties developed en masse, Providence often put a genius at the head, who dammed the raw forces into a path, purified the spirit and the ominous chaotic They were often prophets and military leaders at the same time. The Jews had their Moses and Joshua, the peoples of western South Asia their Muhammad. Muhammed, Ebn Abdallah, born 569 from an Arab princely family near Mecca, lost his parents at an early age, devoted himself first to arms, then to trade, made long caravans, learned about the various doctrines on them, acquired them and, supported by a powerful imagination and stimulated by ambition, built a new religious building of his own. He married his mistress, became emir of his tribe and thereby powerful, got visions, lived in a cave , put his teaching in order, won followers and acted as a reformer. Alternately he found protection and persecution; with sword in hand he preached Islam, his enthusiasm, his visions and various jugglers convinced and tore the raw crowd away [...]. "

The scientifically unfounded assumption that Mohammed suffered from epilepsy has sometimes been turned positively. The Russian mathematician Sofja Kowalewskaja reports on an encounter with the writer Dostoyevsky , who told of his first epileptic seizure and concluded with the following words:

“Mohammed assures in his Koran that he has seen paradise ... All the wise men are of the opinion that he is a liar and a deceiver. No, no, he didn't lie. He was actually raptured to Paradise during one of his seizures from which he suffered as I did. I cannot say whether this bliss will last for seconds, hours or months, but, on my word, I would not exchange it for all earthly joys. "

Islamic sources on the life of Muhammad

Calligraphic representation of the name Mohammed at the gate of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina.

“In the case of Mohammed, the written sources about his life do not begin until around AD 750 to 800, about four or five generations after his death, and few Islamic scholars (...) today assume that they are direct historical reports. In spite of everything, we probably know more about Mohammed than about Jesus (not to mention Moses or Buddha), and we certainly have the opportunity to know a lot more. "

Although the way of life ( Sunna ) of Muhammad is the subject of innumerable reports ( hadith ), which were handed down by his companions and later put down in writing, there are almost no independent contemporary sources on Muhammad's life and work; the Koran was also only collected and written down about twenty years after his death. Almost everything that is reported about the life of Muhammad comes from partisan sources that either praise him as a proclaimer of divine truth or - as in Christian apologetics - reject him as a "seducer". This article essentially follows the findings of Islamic studies . In parts of the historical-critical school of Islamic studies , the existence of Mohammed as a historical person is questioned.

Koran

All of the following quotations from the Koran come from the translation by Rudi Paret .

In researching the life of Muhammad as the founder of a religion and historical figure in the 7th century, Islamic studies always regards the Koran as a fundamental source.

“In this context, namely when it comes to the question of the history of Muhammad and his time, we consider the Koran to be a first-order historical source, and we see our task in making it speak by means of a thorough interpretation. Mohammed is more to us than a mere transmitter of divine truth. He comes into action himself, afflicted with human weaknesses, which makes him sympathetic because we see our flesh and blood in him, and at the same time gifted with a human greatness that demands admiration and awe. "

According to Islamic tradition, the Koran was recorded in writing by some followers of Muhammad from the beginning (from around the year 610), initially as collections of loose sheets ( ṣaḥīfa, Pl. Ṣuḥuf  /صحف, صحيفة / ṣaḥīfa, Pl. ṣuḥuf ), mainly on parchment , made from animal skins ( raqq / riqq  /رقّ). These collections were called maṣāḥif (from Sing. Muṣḥafمصاحف, مصحف / maṣāḥif, muṣḥaf ).

The most important source about Muhammad's work as a prophet is therefore the Koran. Mohammed himself is mentioned four times in the revelation text on different occasions:

“And Mohammed is only a messenger. There have been (various other) ambassadors before him. "

- 3: 144

“Mohammed is not the father of (any) one of your husbands (even if this is his nominal son). Rather, he is the Messenger of God and the seal of the prophets (i.e. the certifier of the earlier prophets, or the last of the prophets). "

- 33:40

Both verses of the Koran are direct and historically authentic evidence of the self- image of Muhammad as a prophet who continues and completes the message of earlier prophets of the “ owners of the scriptures ”.

“But for those who believe and do what is right, and who believe in what has been revealed to Muhammad (as revelation) - it is (yes) the truth (and comes) from their Lord - from whom he will eradicate theirs bad deeds and fixes everything for them. "

- 47: 2

“Mohammed is the Messenger of God. And those who are with him (believers) are violent towards the unbelievers, but are compassionate among themselves. "

- 48:29

As the two verses show, Muhammad saw himself as a messenger of a message of salvation, which was to distinguish him and his followers from the so-called unbelievers ( kuffār ).

Koranic exegesis (tafsīr)

For many passages of the Koran, the Koran exegesis ( tafsīr ) provides details that are important when considering Muhammad as a historical figure and founder of a religion according to Islamic understanding. The Koran exegetes have the news about the historical reasons of the revelation asbab an-nuzul  /أسباب النزول / asbābu 'n-nuzūl of certain verses collected from the oldest sources in Islamic historiography and discussed in detail. In the process, an independent branch of Koran exegesis developed, which was devoted exclusively to those verses of the Koran, the revelation of which was related to certain events in the life of Muhammad. The German orientalist Theodor Nöldeke emphasizes the importance of this literary genre within the Koran exegesis as follows:

“The works going under the name Asbāb an-nuzūl differ from the Commentaries in that they only contain the material relating to the cause of the revelation. However, since this constitutes the most important part of the commentaries in terms of both the history of religion and the history of literature and is particularly easy to overlook here, stripped of all annoying accessories, it is easy to understand how great the value of these books is for research. "

The consistent evaluation of the Koran exegetical material from the early 8th century, in which Koran verses are connected and interpreted with historical events of the time of the prophets, also leads to new results in the presentation of Muhammad's political activities and their chronology. The commentary on the Koran by Muhammad ibn as-Sāʾib al-Kalbī (d. 763), which has so far received little attention, is of particular importance in this regard.

Sīra

The sīra of Muḥammad b. Isḥāq , which we have in the processing and with the additions or explanations of Ibn Hishām , is a further historical source in profane tradition. The author traces many reports back to older sources which can be dated to the first Muslim century (7th century AD). Later historiographers, such as at-Tabarī in his annalistic world history, process further information from the early period in their works, which is not included in the “biography of the prophets”. Go to the first Muslim century some reports of 'Urwa ibn az-Zubair back, which, written in the form of letters and the (died at 712th) Umayyad - Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan directed important historical details about the early days of Prophecy included. This information is received in the above-mentioned world history of al-Tabari in the tradition of ʿUrwa's son, Hisham; the Austrian orientalist Aloys Sprenger translated it into German in 1861. According to the current state of research, the authenticity of these reports is not in doubt.

The campaigns (maghazi)

In addition to the biography of the prophets, another historiographical genre deals with the life and work of the founder of the faith: the so-called Maghāzī literature, in which, in the narrower sense, the campaigns of Muhammad up to his death are dealt with chronologically, which exclusively fall into the Medinan period of his work. The most important work in this genre goes back to al-Wāqidī , who worked in Baghdad until 823 . Julius Wellhausen published an abbreviated German translation in 1882. The complete work in the original has been in print in three volumes since 1966. In a broader sense, however, this genre also includes the entire work of Muhammad; Ibn Ishaq's above-mentioned work is also referred to in the literature with the word pair “maghazi and siyar” (the Prophet). Another important work in this genre, which is known only fragmentarily and through quotations in later historical works, goes back to Mūsā b.ʿUqba (died 758) from Medina; It is the last of the German Orientalists Gregor Schoeler ( Ref : source historically been studied Schoelerpark).

The "class register" of Ibn Saʿd

The fourth historiographical genre are the so-called class books ("kutub aṭ-ṭabaqāt"); they are not structured in an annalistic way, but are compiled according to the time when the persons treated (“ Sahāba ”) joined Islam. The beginning of these works is dedicated to the descent, life and work of Muhammad. The most famous work in this field was created by a disciple of the above-mentioned al-Waqidi, Muhammad ibn Saʿd from Basra , who died in Baghdad in 845. The book was first published in nine volumes in 1917 by the orientalists Eugen Wednesday and Eduard Sachau et alii . The "class book" of Ibn Sad is the epitome of research into the early Islamic period at the time of prophecy and the rule of the first caliphs.

See also

literature

The life of Muhammad

Modern biographies of Mohammed

Studies on the source problem

  • Uri Rubin: The eye of the beholder: the life of Muḥammad as viewed by the early Muslims: a textual analysis . Princeton 1995, ISBN 0-87850-110-X .
  • J. Horovitz: The Earliest Biographies of the Prophet and their Authors. Islamic Culture , Vol. 1 (1927): 535-559; Vol. 2. (1928): 22-50; 164-182; 495-526, ISBN 0-87850-118-5 (Reprint 2002).
  • Harald Motzki (Ed.): The Biography of Muḥammad: The issue of the Sources. Brill, Leiden 2000, ISBN 90-04-11513-7 .
  • Gregor Schoeler: Character and authenticity of the Muslim tradition about the life of Muhammad. de Gruyter, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-11-014862-5 . ( Preview on GoogleBooks )
  • Gregor Schoeler: Mūsā b.ʿUqbas Maghāzī. In: The Biography of Muḥammad: The Issue of the Sources. Edited by Harald Motzki. Brill, Leiden 2000, pp. 67-97, ISBN 90-04-11513-7 .
  • F. Sezgin: History of Arabic Literature. “Geschistorschreibung”, Vol. 1., pp. 237–338. Brill, Leiden 1967, ISBN 90-04-02007-1 (Reprint 1996). ( Preview on GoogleBooks )

Sources in translation

German language translations
  • Gustav Weil: The Life of Mohammed after Mohammed Ibn Ishâk, edited by Abd el-Malik Ibn Hischâm. Translated from Arabic by Dr. G. Because . JB Metzler, 1864. ( available online )
  • Ibn Ishaq: The Prophet's Life . Translated from the Arabic by Gernot Rotter. Kandern, 2004. ISBN 9963-40-040-X
  • Julius Wellhausen: Muhammad in Medina. This is Vakidi's Kitab alMaghazi in a shortened German version . Reimer, 1882. ISBN 3-11-118091-3 ( available online )
  • Paret, Rudi: The legendary Maghāzi literature. Arabic poems about the Muslim war campaigns in Muhammad's time . JCB Mohr, 1930.
  • Eduard Sachau (Ed.): Ibn Saad. Biographies of Muhammad, his companions and the later bearers of Islam up to the year 230 of his flight . Brill, 1909.
    • Vol. 1, part 1: Biography of Muhammad up to the escape (ed. Eugen Wednesday) ( available online )
    • Vol. 1, Part 2: Biography of Muhammad. Events of his Medinan time, personal description and lifestyle. (Ed. Eugen Wednesday and Eduard Sachau). Available online
    • Vol. 2, part 1: The campaigns of Muhammad (ed. Josef Horovitz). ( Available online )
    • Vol. 2, Part 2: Last illness, death and the burial of Muhammad, along with mourning poems about him. Biographies of connoisseurs of canon law and the Koran who worked in Medina during the lifetime of the Prophet and in the following generation. (Ed. Friedrich Schwally). Available online
  • Fleischhammer, Manfred (Ed.): “From the life of the prophet.” Altarabische prose. Reclam, Leipzig 1988. 10-25, ISBN 3-379-00334-4 .
English language translations

Individual questions

  • Glen Bowersock : The Cradle of Islam. Mohammed, the Koran and the ancient cultures. CH Beck, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-406-73401-4 .
  • Heribert Busse : Jerusalem in the Story of Muhammad's Night Journey and Ascension. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 14 (1991), pp. 1-40.
  • F. M Donner: Muhammad's Political Consolidation in Arabia up to the Conquest of Mecca. In: The Muslim World 69 (1979), pp. 229-247.
  • Alfred Guillaume : New Light on the Life of Muhammad. Manchester UP, Manchester 1960 (Journal of Semitic Studies, Monograph, No. 1).
  • Meir J. Kister: The Massacre of the Banū Quraiẓa: A re-examination of a tradition. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 8 (1986), pp. 61–96.
  • Michael Lecker: The Ḍirār Mosque. In: Muslims, Jews & Pagans: Studies on Early Islamic Medina. Brill, Leiden 1995, pp. 74-146, ISBN 90-04-10247-7 .
  • Michael Lecker: On Arabs of the Banū Kilāb executed together with the Jewish Banū Quraiẓa. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 19 (1995), pp. 66–76.
  • Miklos Muranyi: The extradition clause of the treaty of al-Ḥudaibiya and its consequences. In: Arabica 23 (1976), pp. 275-295.
  • Miklos Muranyi: The First Muslims in Mecca: A Social Basis for a New Religion? The Life of Muhammad. Ed. Uri Rubin. Ashgate Variorum, Aldershot 1998. 95-104 (The Formation of the Classical Islamic World, Vol. 4). ISBN 0-86078-703-6
  • Rudolf Sellheim: Muhammad's first revelation experience. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam (JSAI) 10 (1987), pp. 1-16.
  • Uri Rubin: Iqraʾ bi-smi rabbika…! Some Notes on the Interpretation of sūrat al-ʿalaq (Vs. 1-5). In: Israel Oriental Studies 13 (1993), pp. 213-230
  • Uri Rubin: The Life of Muhammad and the Qur'ân: The case of Muhammad's Hijra. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 28 (2003), pp. 40–64.
  • Arent Jan Wensinck . Muhammad and the Jews of Medina. Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-87997-038-6 .

Literary adaptations

Islamic worship of Mohammed

  • Tor Andræ : The person of Muhammad in the doctrine and faith of his community . Stockholm 1918.
  • Harris Birkeland : The Legend of the Opening of Muhammad's Breast . Oslo 1955.
  • Nico Kaptein: Muḥammad's birthday festival: early history in the central Muslim lands and development in the Muslim west until the 10th / 16th century. Leiden 1993. ISBN 90-04-09452-0 ( preview on GoogleBooks )
  • Marion Holmes Katz: The birth of the prophet Muhammad: devotional piety in Sunni Islam. London 2009. ISBN 0-415-55187-0 ( preview on GoogleBooks )
  • Fritz Meier: A Resurrection of Muhammad at Suyūṭī. in: Der Islam 62/1 (1985) 20-58.
  • Tilman Nagel: Allah's Favorite: Origin and manifestations of the belief in Muhammad . Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58535-3 . ( Preview on GoogleBooks )
  • Annemarie Schimmel : And Muhammad is his prophet. Adoration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety . 3rd edition, Diederischs, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-424-00692-0 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Mohammed  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Mohammed  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Lawrence I. Conrad: Abraha and Muhammad. Some observations apropos of chronology and literary topoi in the early Arabic historical tradition. In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Volume 50, 1987, pp. 225-240; MJ Kister: The Campaign of Ḥulubān. In: Le Museon. Volume 78, 1965, pp. 425-436; Ella Landau-Tessaron: Sayf Ibn ʿUmar in Medieval and Modern Scholarship. In: Islam. Volume 67, 1990, p. 12.
  2. See The History of al-Ṭabarī. Volume 5: The Sāsānids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen. Translated and annotated by CE Bosworth. Albany 1999. p. 268.
  3. Cf. al-Masʿūdī : Kitāb at-Tanbīh wa-l-išrāf. French translation by B. Carra de Vaux. Imprimerie Nationale, Paris 1896. p. 303. Digitized
  4. John L. (ed.) Esposito: The Oxford Dictionary of Islam 2003, ISBN 978-0-19-512558-0 , p. 198 (accessed July 1, 2015).
  5. Cf. FE Peters: Muhammad and the origins of Islam. Albany 1994, p. 57 f.
  6. See Tilman Nagel: Mohammed. Life and legend. Munich 2008, p. 52.
  7. Cf. al-Masʿūdī : Kitāb at-Tanbīh wa-l-išrāf. French translation by B. Carra de Vaux. Imprimerie Nationale, Paris 1896, p. 281. Digitized
  8. See also Rudi Paret: The Koran. Commentary and Concordance. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1980, p. 513.
  9. On the children who resulted from this marriage, see: Meir J. Kister: The Sons of Khadīja. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. Volume 16, 1993, pp. 59-95.
  10. Rudi Paret: Mohammed and the Koran. 10th edition. Stuttgart 2008, p. 42 ff. Cf. also Aziz Al-Azmeh: The Emergence of Islam in Late Antiquity. Allah and His People. Cambridge 2014.
  11. Fuat Sezgin (1967), pp. 268-271.
  12. MJ Kister: "A bag of meat". A study of an early Ḥadīth. In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Volume 33, 1970, p. 275; Julius Wellhausen: Remnants of Arab paganism. Berlin 1887, p. 30.
  13. ^ Alfred Guillaume: New light on the life of Muhammad. Manchester University Press, 1960 (= Journal of Semitic Studies. Monograph No. 1), pp. 27-28 (in English translation based on Ibn Ishāq's biography of the prophets, edited by Yūnus ibn Bukair). In the edition by Muḥammad Ḥamīdullāh (Konya 1981), p. 98.
  14. See the compilation of different arrangements of this episode: M. J. Kister: "A bag of meat" op. Cit .... p. 267-275.
  15. a b Aloys Sprenger: About the calendar of the Arabs before Mohammad. In: Journal of the German Oriental Society. Volume 13, 1859, pp. 134-175, here: p. 170. Digitalisat
  16. a b Aloys Sprenger: The life and teaching of Moḥammad based on largely unused sources. Nicolai'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin 1861, p. 349 digitized
  17. Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher: The number 40 in the faith, custom and literature of the Semites. In: Treatises of the Philological-Historical Class of the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences. Volume 27, No. 4, 1909, pp. 94-138, here: pp. 129 f. Digitalisat .
  18. Nagel: Mohammed. Life and legend . 2008, p. 108.
  19. Nagel: Mohammed. Life and legend . 2008, p. 109.
  20. Nagel: Mohammed. Life and legend. 2008, p. 109 f.
  21. ^ R. Sellheim: Muhammad's first revelation experience. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 10 (1987). Pp. 4-5.
  22. Theodor Nöldeke: History of the Qorāns . IS 82: “Rather, قرأ is used everywhere in the Qorāne for the murmuring or droning utterance of sacred texts, while the meaning 'read' has only gradually joined this. It will therefore be advisable not to deviate from the usual meaning of the verb 'recite' or 'recite' in our place. "
  23. Sura 56, verse 74; Sura 59, 52.
  24. Sura 73, verse 8.
  25. Uri Rubin (1993), pp. 214-217.
  26. For details see: Gregor Schoeler: Character and authenticity of the Muslim tradition about the life of Muhammad , pp. 59–118; U. Rubin: "Iqraʾ bi-smi rabbika ...!" Some Notes on the Interpretation of sūrat al-ʿalaq (Vs. 1-5). In: Israel Oriental Studies. Volume 13, 1993, pp. 213-230.
  27. See the compilation of controversial views in traditional Islamic literature in Richard Bell: Mohammed's Call ; in: The Moslem World 24 (1934), pp. 13-19. Also in: Rudi Paret (Ed.): The Koran ; Darmstadt 1975; Pp. 86-92.
  28. ^ M. Muranyi: The First Muslims in Mecca: A Social Basis for a New Religion? In: Uri Rubin (Ed.): The Life of Muḥammad. Ashgate Variorum, Aldershot 1998 (= The Formation of the Classical Islamic World. Volume 4), p. 98 ff.
  29. Cf. Ibn Ishāq: The Life of the Prophet. From the Arabic by G. Rotter. Stuttgart 1982, p. 101 f.
  30. Cf. Ibn Ishāq: The Life of the Prophet . From the Arabic by G. Rotter. Stuttgart 1982. p. 105.
  31. Cf. Al-Balādhurī : Kitāb Futūḥ al-Buldān. Ed. Michael Jan de Goeje . Brill, Leiden, 1866. S. 2. - German transl. Oskar Rescher . S. 1. Digitized
  32. Hans Jansen: Mohammed. A biography. 2008, pp. 196-199 (there hakam ).
  33. Rudi Paret: Mohammed and the Koran. History and proclamation of the Arab prophet . Kohlhammer, 2001. p. 129.
  34. See Theodor Nöldeke: History of the Qoran . Leipzig, 1938. p. 214 and references there.
  35. ^ The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. Brill, suffering. Vol. 7, p. 360 ( Muḥammad ): "The Helpers had pledged themselves to defend Muhammad only if he were attacked ...".
  36. These "raids" were considered by Arabs to be a common way of earning income for smaller tribes who wanted to enrich themselves from the wealth of larger tribes. See The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. Brill, suffering. Vol. 2, p. 1055 ( Ghazw ).
  37. See e.g. B. 8:72 f. As well as verse 74 f. Of the same sura, where between the emigrants as those " who believed and emigrated and worked with their property and their own person on the way of God " and the helpers, " who (those) have accommodated and supported ”(translation according to Khoury).
  38. ^ W. Montgomery Watt: Islamic Conceptions of the Holy War . In: Ths P. Murphy: The Holy War . Ohio State University Press, 1976. p. 142.
  39. ^ W. Montgomery Watt: Islamic Political Thought . Edinburgh University Press, 1980. p. 15.
  40. See Bobzin 101 f.
  41. See Bobzin 102-103.
  42. Hermann Ethe: New Persian literature , in Wilhelm Geiger / Ernst Kuhn (ed.): Floor plan of Iranian Philology , Volume 2, Trübner, Strasbourg 1897, 212-368, here 235th
  43. digitized version in the BNF; Brief information from the BNF on the folio page.
  44. M. Muranyi: The extradition clause of the treaty of al-Ḥudaibiya and its consequences. In: Arabica 23 (1976), pp. 276-277; Andreas Görke: The Historical Tradition about al-Hudaybiya ; in: Harald Motzki (Ed.): The Biography of Muhammad , p. 241; 246.
  45. ^ The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. Brill, suffering. Vol. 6, p. 147 ("Makka"): "A breach of the terms of this treaty by Meccan allies led to a great Muslim expedition against Mecca with some 10,000 men. The town was surrendered almost without a blow, and all the Meccans, except a handful who were guilty of specific offenses against Muhammad or some Muslim, were assured their lives and property would be safe if they behaved honorable. "
  46. M. Gil: The constitution of Medina: a reconsideration. In: Israel Oriental Studies. Volume 4, 1974, pp. 44-66; M. Montgomery Watt: Muhammad at Medina. P. 221 ff .; RB Serjant: The 'Sunna Jāmiʿah'. Pacts with the Yathrib Jews and the Taḥrīm of Yathrib: Analyzes and Translation of the document comprised in the so-called "Constitution of Medina". In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Volume 41, 1978, pp. 1-43.
  47. Michael Lecker: Did Muḥammad conclude treaties with the Jewish tribes Naḍīr, Qurayẓa and Qaynuqāʿ? In: Israel Oriental Studies, Vol. 17 (1997), pp. 29-36.
  48. Michael Lecker, op. Cit. P. 32 and note 15.
  49. Rudi Paret: The Koran. Commentary and Concordance . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1980. p. 36.
  50. ^ The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition . Brill, suffering. Vol. 8, p. 756.
  51. Moshe Gil : The Medinan opposition to the Prophet. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam. 10: 65-96 (1987); 65-67.
  52. Rudi Paret: Tolerance and Intolerance in Islam . In: Saeculum 21 (1970), p. 34: “About half of the local population accepted Islam within a short time, unless they had decided to do so before the arrival of the Meccan emigrants. They were the so-called Anṣār , the 'helpers' ”.
  53. ^ Theodor Nöldeke: The life of Muhammad . Hanover 1863. pp. 55–56: correctly states that “for a long time after his (= Muhammad's) arrival, some of the Medinians remained loyal to the old idolatry - such as For example, a large family, the Aus-allāh, is reported to have stayed away from Islam for years under the influence of the poet Abū Kais ”.
  54. Michael Lecker: Muslims, Jews & Pagans . Studies on Early Islamic Medina. Brill, 1995. pp. 19-49 and 21-26 and 48-49.
  55. Kitab al-ikrah , Chapter 2. al-mausu'a al-fiqhiyya . Kuwait. Vol. 3 (2005), pp. 127-128 (sub. Ard al-'arab: Land of the Arabs).
  56. See Yohanan Friedmann: Tolerance and Coercion in Islam. Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition . Cambridge University Press, 2003. pp. 91-93 and references there.
  57. See Theodor Nöldeke: History of the Qoran . Leipzig, 1938. p. 206 as well as references there.
  58. Michael Lecker: Muslims, Jews and Pagans. Studies on Early Islamic Medina . Brill, 1995. pp. 25 f.
  59. Meir J. Kister: The Massacre of the Banu Quraiza: A re-examination of a tradition. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 8 (1986). P. 61.
  60. Meir J. Kister (1986), pp. 82 and 85.
  61. See inter alia: W. Montgomery Watt: Muhammad. Prophet and Statesman . Oxford University Press, 1961. p. 173; Rudi Paret: Mohammed and the Koran. History and proclamation of the Arab prophet . Kohlhammer, 2001. p. 123; Maxime Rodinson: Muhammad: Prophet of Islam . Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2002. p. 214; The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. Brill, suffering. Vol. 5, p. 436: “The question of an agreement affects the moral judgment on Muhammad's treatment of Kurayza. During the Siege of Medina (...) Muhammad became anxious about their conduct and sent some of the leading Muslims to talk to them; the result was disquieting. Though Kurayza does not appear to have committed any overt hostile act, they had probably been involved in negotiations with the enemy. ”Irving Zeitlin ( The Historical Muhammad . Polity Press, 2007, p. 13) names religious and ideological differences as the cause of the However, Mohammed's dispute with the Jews of Medina, which ultimately led to the execution of the Quraiza, emphasizes above all the political and economic reasons.
  62. See Meir J. Kister: The Massacre of the Banū Quraiza: A re-examination of a tradition . In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 8 (1986). P. 63 and the literature cited there.
  63. ^ The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. Brill, suffering. Vol. 5, p. 436.
  64. Meir J. Kister: The Massacre of the Banū Quraiza: A re-examination of a tradition. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 8 (1986). P. 86.
  65. ^ Encyclopaedia Judaica . 2nd edition. Macmillan Reference United States, Detroit. Vol. 16, p. 776.
  66. ^ W. Montgomery Watt, Alford T. Welch: Islam I: Mohammed and the early days, Islamic law, religious life (= The religions of mankind . Volume 25.1). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1980, p. 114.
  67. ^ W. Montgomery Watt: Muhammad. Prophet and Statesman . Oxford University Press, 1961. p. 171.
  68. ^ M. Lecker: On Arabs of the Banū Kilāb executed together with the Jewish Banū Quraiẓa. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 19 (1995). Pp. 69-70.
  69. According to: AJ Wensinck and Johannes H. Kramers : Concise Dictionary of Islam. Brill, Leiden 1941. p. 347a.
  70. ^ WN Arafat: New Light on the Story of Banu Quraiza and the Jews of Medina . In: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland . 1976, p. 100-107 ( Internet ).
  71. See Meir J. Kister: The Massacre of the Banū Quraiẓa: A re-examination of a tradition. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 8 (1986). Pp. 61-96.
  72. Rudi Paret: Mohammed and the Koran. History and proclamation of the Arab prophet. Kohlhammer, 2001. p. 123 and p. 140.
  73. Rudi Paret: Mohammed and the Koran. History and proclamation of the Arab prophet. Kohlhammer, 2001. p. 125.
  74. Rudi Paret: Mohammed and the Koran. History and proclamation of the Arab prophet. Kohlhammer, 2001. p. 123.
  75. ^ W. Montgomery Watt: Muhammad. Prophet and Statesman. Oxford University Press, 1961. p. 173.
  76. Rudi Paret: Mohammed and the Koran. History and proclamation of the Arab prophet. Kohlhammer, 2001. pp. 123 f.
  77. ^ Michael Lecker: On Arabs of the Banu Kilab executed together with the Jewish Banu Qurayẓa . In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 19 (1995). P. 66.
  78. ^ Uri Rubin: Between Arabia and the Holy Land: a Mecca-Jerusalem Axis of Sanctity . In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam (JSAI), 34 (2008), pp. 350–351; 354; WM Watt: Muhammad at Medina . Oxford 1956. pp. 202-203.
  79. Miklos Muranyi: Ibn Isḥāq's Kitāb al-Maġāzī in the Riwāya of Yūnus b. Bukair. Comments on the early tradition . In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam (JSAI) 14 (1991), pp. 255-256; 261-263.
  80. ^ W. Montgomery Watt: Muhammad. Prophet and Statesman . Oxford University Press, 1961. p. 218.
  81. Theodor Nöldeke: History of the Qorāns . Vol. IS 223-224
  82. al-mausu'a al-fiqhiyya , Vol. 15, pp. 153-155; Kuwait 2002 4 .
  83. Theodor Nöldeke: History of the Qorāns . Vol. 1. pp. 222-224.
  84. The reports have been analyzed in detail by Michael Lecker: Muslims, Jews & Pagans: Studies on Early Islamic Medina. Leiden, 1995. Chapter 4, pp. 74-100.
  85. Moshe Gil: The Medinan opposition to the Prophet . In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 10 (1987), pp. 65-96.
  86. Cf. Marco Schöller: The Living and the Dead in Islam. Studies in Arabic Epitaphs. II Epitaphs in Context. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2004. pp. 17f.
  87. See also: adh-Dhahabī: Siyar aʿlām an-nubalāʾ , (Beirut 1983), Vol. 17, p. 42.
  88. M. Muranyi: A new report on the election of the first caliph Abū Bakr. In: Arabica 25 (1978), pp. 233-260.
  89. Uri Rubin: The Seal of the Prophets and the Finality of Prophecy. On the Interpretation of the Qurʾānic Sūrat al-Aḥzāb (33) . In: Journal of the German Oriental Society (ZDMG), Volume 164 (2014), pp. 65–96
  90. Cf. Andrae 29 f.
  91. See Uri Rubin: "Nūr Muḥammadī" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. VIII, p. 125.
  92. See Sidney H, Griffith: The Prophet Muḥammad: his scripture and his message according to the christian apologies in Arabic and Syriac from the first Abbasid century. In: Uri Rubin (Ed.): The Life of Muḥammad. Ashgate Variorum 1998. pp. 354-355; 380-384.
  93. See Birkeland: The Legend of the Opening of Muhammad's Breast . 1955, pp. 12-24, 54.
  94. See Birkeland: The Legend of the Opening of Muhammad's Breast . 1955, pp. 6-12.
  95. See Schimmel: And Muhammad is his prophet. 1995, p. 51 f.
  96. Cf. Andrae: The person Muhammad in the doctrine and faith of his community . 1918, pp. 52-55.
  97. Cf. Andrae: The person of Muhammad in the teaching and belief of his community . 1918, pp. 55-57.
  98. Andrae: The person of Muhammad in the teaching and belief of his community . Pp. 1918, pp. 46-48 and pp. 88-91.
  99. Moshe Sharon: Corpus inscriptionum arabicarum palaestinae (CIAP), Addendum: Squeezes… 1-84, Handbuch der Orientalistik, First Department, Volume 30, Brill, Leiden 2007, p. 121. ( Digital copy available from Google Books ; accessed December 18 2015.)
  100. See: H. Busse: Jerusalem in the Story of Muhammad's Night Journey and Ascension. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 14 (1991). Pp. 1-40, especially pp. 36-37.
  101. See Andrae 30.
  102. Cf. Marco Schöller: The Living and the Dead in Islam. Studies in Arabic Epitaphs. II Epitaphs in Context . Wiesbaden 2004. pp. 47 and 55.
  103. Cf. Marcel Behrens: "A Garden of Paradise". The Prophet's Mosque in Medina . Würzburg 2007. pp. 121-132.
  104. See Schöller 47.
  105. See the essay by Fritz Meier.
  106. See Guido Steinberg: Religion and State in Saudi Arabia. The Wahhabi Scholars 1902–1953. Würzburg 2002. pp. 537 f.
  107. ^ Robert G. Hoyland : The Earliest Christian Writings on Muhammad : An Appraisal. in: Harald Motzki (Ed.): The Biography of Muḥammad. The Issue of the Sources. Brill. Leiden 2000, p. 276 ff., Here p. 278.
  108. See Robert G. Hoyland: The Earliest Christian Writings on Muhammad : An Appraisal. in: Harald Motzki (Ed.): The Biography of Muḥammad. The Issue of the Sources. Brill. Leiden 2000, p. 276 ff.
  109. Hartmut Bobzin: Mohammed . Verlag CHBeck oHG, Munich 2000, p. 9. ISBN 978-3-406-44744-0 .
  110. Hartmut Bobzin: Mohammed . P. 10.
  111. Albrecht Noth / T. Ehlert in: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition . Vol. VII, Leiden 1993, p. 380.
  112. Hartmut Bobzin: Mohammed . P. 18.
  113. Hartmut Bobzin: Mohammed . P. 15.
  114. ^ Commented Latin-German text edition by Johannes Ehmann
  115. Hartmut Bobzin: Mohammed . P. 17.
  116. UB Freiburg: Abraham a Sancta Clara: Auff, auff You Christians!
  117. Ladies Conversations Lexicon: Muhammed. 1836, accessed March 13, 2021 .
  118. Hartmut Bobzin: Mohammed . Pp. 15-16.
  119. Patricia Crone in: openDemocracy 10 June 2008 ( Memento from February 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), original: “In the case of Mohammed, Muslim literary sources for his life only begin around 750-800 CE (common era), some four to five generations after his death, and few Islamicists (specialists in the history and study of Islam) these days assume them to be straightforward historical accounts. For all that, we probably know more about Mohammed than we do about Jesus (let alone Moses or the Buddha), and we certainly have the potential to know a great deal more. "
  120. Rudi Paret : Translation of the Koran . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2004.
  121. Rudi Paret: The Koran as a source of history . In: Der Islam , Vol. 37 (1961), p. 26. Also in: Rudi Paret (Ed.): The Koran (= ways of research 326). Darmstadt 1975, p. 140.
  122. On the importance of this branch of Koran exegesis see: Michael Lecker: Muslims, Jews & Pagans . Studies on Early Islamic Medina. Brill, Leiden 1995. pp. 91-92.
  123. Theodor Nöldeke: History of the Qorāns . Leipzig 1909. Vol. 2, p. 182.
  124. Fuat Sezgin (1967), pp. 34-35.
  125. Cf. Marco Schöller: Sīra and Tafsīr: Muḥammad al-Kalbī on the Jews of Medina . In: Harald Motzki (Ed.): The Biography of Muḥammad: The issue of the Sources. Leiden: Brill, 2000. pp. 18-44.
  126. ^ Raif Georges Khoury: Les sources islamiques de la "Sira" avant Ibn Hishām (m.213 / 834) et leur valeur historique. In: La vie du Prophète Mahomet. Colloque de Strasbourg (Octobre 1980) Presses Universitaires de France 1983. pp. 7–29, lists the oldest sources of Sīra literature.