Early sources and historiography

 

Early sources and historiography

Main article: Historiography of early Islam

Further information: Early social changes under Islam and Revisionist school of Islamic studies

The study of the earliest periods in Islamic history is made difficult by a lack of sources.^[18] For example, the most important historiographical source for the origins of Islam is the work of al-Tabari.^[19] While al-Tabari is considered an excellent historian by the standards of his time and place, he made liberal use of mythical, legendary, stereotyped, distorted, and polemical presentations of subject matter—which are however considered to be Islamically acceptable—and his descriptions of the beginning of Islam post-date the events by several generations, al-Tabari having died in 923 CE.^[20][21]

Differing views about how to deal with the available sources has led to the development of four different approaches to the history of early Islam. All four methods have some level of support today.^[22][23]

·        The descriptive method uses the outlines of Islamic traditions, while being adjusted for the stories of miracles and faith-centred claims within those sources.^[24] Edward Gibbon and Gustav Weil represent some of the first historians following the descriptive method.

·        On the source critical method, a comparison of all the sources is sought in order to identify which informants to the sources are weak and thereby distinguish spurious material.^[25] The work of William Montgomery Watt and that of Wilferd Madelung are two source critical examples.

·        On the tradition critical method, the sources are believed to be based on oral traditions with unclear origins and transmission history, and so are treated very cautiously.^[26] Ignaz Goldziher was the pioneer of the tradition critical method, and Uri Rubin gives a contemporary example.

·        The skeptical method doubts nearly all of the material in the traditional sources, regarding any possible historical core as too difficult to decipher from distorted and fabricated material.^[27] An early example of the sceptical method was the work of John Wansbrough.

Nowadays, the popularity of the different methods employed varies on the scope of the works under consideration. For overview treatments of the history of early Islam, the descriptive approach is more popular. For scholars who look at the beginnings of Islam in depth, the source critical and tradition critical methods are more often followed.^[22]

After the 8th century CE, the quality of sources improves.^[28] Those sources which treated earlier times with a large temporal and cultural gap now begin to give accounts which are more contemporaneous, the quality of genre of available historical accounts improves, and new documentary sources—such as official documents, correspondence and poetry—appear.^[28] For the time prior to the beginning of Islam—in the 6th century CE—sources are superior as well, if still of mixed quality. In particular, the sources covering the Sasanian realm of influence in the 6th century CE are poor, while the sources for Byzantine areas at the time are of a respectable quality, and complemented by Syriac Christian sources for Syria and Iraq.^[29]