"Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam is an extremely controversial but effectively argued and extensively documented work. The author presents a radical challenge to a number of standard assertions about the socio-economic milieu in which Islam arose." -R. Stephen Humphreys, University of Wisconsin, Madison Patricia Crone reassesses one of the most widely accepted dogmas in contemporary accounts of the beginnings of Islam, the supposition that Mecca was a trading center thriving on the export of aromatic spices to the Mediterranean. Pointing out that the conventional opinion is based on...

The history, poetry, and genealogy of the Yemen is the earliest known history of pre-Islamic Yemen. Attributed to the South Arabian historian 'Abid b. Sharya al-Jurhumi d. 680 A.D.), it recounts in prose and poetry six saga cycles of ancient personages and events of the Yemen. Here, two sagas, the dispersion of Sam's descendants from Babel to the Yemen, and the destruction of the tribes of 'Ad and Thamud, are translated with complete annotation. The tales of Luqman b. 'Ad and his seven vultures, Sulayman and Bilqis, the Himyarite kings, and Tasm and Jadis are given in full synopses.

Abu Hatim al-Razi (d. 322/934) was the Ismaili author of Kitab al-zina, a unique glossary of Islamic words. This book explores his contributions and place in early Arabic linguistic and lexicographical thought and practice, and in Shi'i heresiographical writing.

Victorian perceptions of Islam were not monochrome. Some saw beyond stereotypical images, others reproduced them. In this study, the latter were technically better equipped, suggesting that presuppositions, not encounter per se, determine how we see cultural and religious others.

Muslims, Jews and Pagans examines in much detail the available source material on the 'Āliya area south of Medina on the eve of Islam and at the time of the Prophet Muḥammad. It provides part of the necessary background for the study of the Prophet's history by utilizing in addition to the Prophet's biographies, various texts about the history, geography and inhabitants of this area.

A reprint of Peter Adamson's influential work The Arabic Plotinus.

Women in Islamic Biographical Collections: From Ibn Sa'd to Who's Who is a groundbreaking study of 40 bibliographical collections, dating from the 9th century to the present, investigating which type of woman Muslim scholars have deemed worthy of recording for posterity. The analysis clearly indicates that Muslim women have achieved prominence in certain fields at certain times.

In recent years, the Qur’ān has come to the forefront of scholarly investigations in Islamic studies. However, the traditional interpretation of the book, commonly termed tafsīr, remains a vast, virtually untapped field of investigation. Many Muslims tend to ignore the material, seeing it as a storehouse of traditional restraints, and scholars frequently gloss over its importance as a historical record of the Muslim community, not appreciating the depth and breadth of the literature. The essays gathered here expose and explore various aspects of the field of tafsīr, and their potential...

Patricia Crone reassesses one of the most widely accepted dogmas in contemporary accounts of the beginnings of Islam: the supposition that Mecca was a trading center. In addition, she seeks to elucidate sources on which we should reconstruct our picture of the birth of the new religion in Arabia.

The aim with the present series, The Quran: Word List, is to present every word form in the Quran as raw data with as little interpretation as possible. The digital text used for this purpose is the Uthmani text of the Tanzil Quran Text. In volumes one and two each attested word form in the Quran is listed alphabetically with no parsing and no alteration. These are listed by word form < lemma < root. Volume three consists of two sections. In section one, the lemmas assigned to each attested word form are listed. In section two, the assigned roots are listed. In assigning each word a root and...