A Prophet Has Appeared

The Rise of Islam through Christian and Jewish Eyes, A Sourcebook

by Stephen J. Shoemaker
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2021. 306 pp. $90 (paper and ebook, $34.95).

Reviewed by Daniel Pipes
Middle East Quarterly
Fall 2021

„Shoemaker, a professor of religious studies at the University of Oregon, has written several path-breaking books on early Islam; here, he complements them with a sourcebook collecting and translating twenty contemporaneous texts by non-Muslims (all Christians and Jews) about the first century of Islam. These have exceptional importance because the entire Muslim historical tradition relies on accounts from centuries later which are, as Shoemaker puts it, „notoriously unreliable.“ In contrast, „all the relevant contemporary witnesses to the rise of Muhammad’s new religious community“ come from non-Muslims. Better yet, they often confirm each other, for example, about the central importance of Jerusalem among Muhammad’s followers. The result is a marvel of concision and originality; best of all, it is readily accessible to the general reader.“ (…)

https://www.danielpipes.org/20599/a-prophet-has-appeared