The Emergence of Islam

Abstract

Gabriel Said Reynolds’ The Emergence of Islam, with a new interpretation and new (although somewhat critical and controversial) insights, is an illustrated, lucidly, and comprehensively contribution to the study and history of the “emergence” of Islam. Usually such an account is rather “straightforward,” whereas the question of “how much of this story is historically accurate” is “less straightforward” (p. ix). The book’s three parts – “The Prophet Muhammad and the Rightly Guided Caliphs” (chapters 1 through 3), “The Qur’an” (chapters 4 through7), and “Contemporary Perspectives” (chapter 8) – discuss the emergence of Islamic history from its origins to the contemporary views ...