NMC273Y1 Lecture 1: Introduction
2 Jun 2016
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Document Summary
First half century of islamic history 610-660ce, important and problematic period. Difficult to know much about islamic origins as sources are problematic. Basis of islam has been constructed by chronicles and other written accounts produced by the islamic tradition disagreements in the written accounts. Undocumented archaeological accounts of islam and muhammad and the first four caliphs. Literary sources in arabic that tell earliest phase of. Islamic history chronicles, poems, hadith, epistles on theological issues, collection of adab, etc. Important that literary texts, such as qur"an be analyzed by both scholars and traditional muslims. Not contemporary sources written many centuries after the events they describe. Chronical discrepancies and absurdities contradict meanings of events. Most accounts are anachronistic others are only for the intention to serve the purposes of political or religious rules. Scholars treat the raw materials provided by these literary and narrative sources in a variety of ways.
