Jerusalem: The Biography

1 Muhammad: Arabia before Prophet: this is based on the following: Koran; Ibn Ishaq, Life of Muhammad; Al-Tabari, Tarikh: The History of al-Tabari. Analysis and narrative – for conventional approach: W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman; Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet. For new analysis: Donner, Muhammad; F. E. Peters, Muhammad and Jesus, Parallel Tracks, Parallel Lives.

Apocalypse in Koran/Last Days/The Hour: Hour is near: Koran 33.63, 47.18. Hour nigh: Koran 54.1. Koran: Introduction ix–xxxvi. Isra and Miraj: Koran 17.1, 17.60, 53.1–18, 81.19 and 25. Change of qibla: Koran 2.142–50; Solomon and djinns in temple: Koran 34.13. Jewish sins and Nebachadnezzar fall of Temple: Koran 17.4–7. Jihad/killing/sword verse/People of the Book/

dhimmi: Koran 16.125, 4.72–4, 9.38–9, 9.5, 9.29; no compulsion in religion 2.256, 3.3–4, 5.68, 3.64, 29.46. Donner, Muhammad 27–38; life and rise of Muhammad and limits of his biography 39–50; limits of sources, quotes of Thomas the Presbyter 50–7; beliefs of early Islam, Donner’s theory of Believers vs Muslims and number of mentions in Koran: 57–61; rituals 61–9; ecumenism of early Believers especially attitude to Jews and the umma document 72–4; Prophet and Apocalypse 78–82; militant jihad 83–6; ecumenical openness to Jews and Christians – quotations from Donner 87–9; Abu Sufyan and Meccan elite co-opted 92–7.

Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad 200–10. Jesus meets Moses and Elijah: Mark 9.1–5. Muhammad, mystery of early Islam; doubts of some scholars of entire history before 800, question of conquest, early caliphs: Wickham 279–89. Armstrong, Muhammad 94; qibla 107; relations with Jews 102, 111, 161–3.

Muhammad in Syria: Kennedy, Conquests 77. Early Islam: Chase F. Robinson, Abd al-Malik

13. Herrin 86–8. Muhammad’s rise: Kennedy, Conquests 45–7; no one more destitute than us, among us who would bury our daughters, God sent us a well-known man, the best among us, Arabian tribes before Muhammad, letters of Muslim soldiers vs Persians, 47. Letters of Muslim soldiers on Persian conquest: al-Tabari, Tarikh 1.2269–77, 2411–24; 2442–4; 2457–63. These sources describe the Arab invaders of Persia just after the Palestinian conquest. Sophronius: Peters, Jerusalem 175. Relations with the Arabian Jewish tribes, first qibla etc., Israiliyat: Isaac Hassan, ‘Muslim Literature in Praise of Jerusalem’, in Cathedra 1.170–2. Importance of advice of Jewish converts: Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History (henceforth Ibn Khaldun) 260.

2 Abu Bakr to Othman. The first successors to Prophet, sources: Donner, Muhammad 91–5; Prophet and Apocalypse 78–82 and 97; knowledge of Syria 96; jihad 83–6; ecumenical openness to Jews and Christians – quotations from Donner 87–9; caliph title used only (possibly) by Abu Bakr but more usually Commander of the Believers and succession 97–106; the nature of Islamic expansion, churches not destroyed 106–19; early version of

shahada (without ‘Muhammad is his prophet/apostle’) 112; Bishop Sebeos and Jewish governor 114; ecumenical 114–15; on sharing churches 114–5; on Cathisma Church with mihrab and in Jerusalem itself 115; Abu Bakr conquests 118–33.

Apocalypse/The Hour: Koran 33.63, 47.18. Hour nigh: Koran 54.1. Early armies at Yarmuk and al-Qadisiyah, only 30,000 men, power of religious propaganda and motivation: Ibn Khaldun 126. Development of title khalifa: Ibn Khaldun 180. Omar takes title Commander of the Faithful: Kennedy, Conquests 54–6 and 72–5. Barnaby Rogerson, The Heirs of the Prophet Muhammad and the Roots of the Sunni–Shia Schism (henceforth Rogerson) 83, 128–9, 169.

Omar takes Palestine, Byzantine empire, weaknesses, plague, poverty: Kennedy, Conquests, 142–98; settlement of Palestine and Iraq 95–7; Amr al-As 46–51 and 70–3; Khalid bin Walid 70–3. Yaqubi, History 2.160–70, and al-Baladhuri, Conquest of the Countries, quoted in Peters, Jerusalem

176–7. Defeat of Byzantines: Runciman 1.15 Khalid in command at Damascus and Yarmuk: Kennedy, Conquests 75–89. Early administration: Rogerson 220.

3 Omar enters Jerusalem: Koran 17.1, change of qibla: Koran 2.142–4. Concept of Day of Judgement: Koran 3.185 33.63, 47.18. 54.1.

Covenant – Tabari, Annals 1.2405, in Peters, Jerusalem 18. Muthir al-Ghiram in Guy Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems 139–44. Eutychius quoted in Peters, Jerusalem 189–90.

Grabar, Shape of the Holy 45–50. Omar looks, character, stories: Ibn Khaldun 162. Kennedy, Conquests 125–30. Rogerson 171–82.