Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World by Patricia Crone (PDF)

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This is a controversial study of the origins of Islamic civilisation, first published in 1977. By examining non-Muslim sources, the authors point out the intimate link between the Jewish religion and the earliest forms of Islam. As a serious, scholarly attempt to open up a new, exploratory path of Islamic history, the book has already engendered much debate. This paperback edition will make the authors’ conclusions widely accessible to teachers and students of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review ‘The authors’ erudition is quite extraordinary, their industry everywhere evident, their prose ebullient.’ Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies’Here, then, is a work of brilliance and deep intellectual penetration … without doubt it constitutes a landmark in the history of scholarship.’ The Times Higher Education Supplement Book Description A study of Islamic civilisation and the intimate link between Jewish religion and the earliest forms of Islam. Book Description This is a controversial study of the origins of Islamic civilisation that examines non-Muslim sources that point out an intimate link between the Jewish religion and the earliest forms of Islam. This book is for teachers and students of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐In Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World, Michael Cook and Patricia Crone provide an alternative interpretation of the rise of Islam and the circumstances leading to it. In doing so, they have attracted some controversy due to their methodology, and the conclusions that flow from this. Their basic premise is that of scepticism: The traditional Islamic sources cannot be trusted, and early Islamic history has to be rewritten from to other sources. To this end, the authors have researched quite extensively on the topic, as indicated by the fact that of the 268 pages comprising the book, 75 pages are dedicated to endnotes, and 22 pages are dedicated to the bibliography. The main text of the book is comprised of fourteen chapters that are divided neatly into three main parts: “Whence Islam?,” “Whither Antiquity?” and “The Collision,” each of which probing a different aspect of middle eastern history, both before and after the rise of Islam.The first part, “Whence Islam?,” comprises five chapters, and concerns the topic of where Islam originated and how it arrived at its current form. It is here that the authors present their thesis that there are no cogent grounds for accepting the historicity of the Islamic tradition, and that because of the unreliability of these traditions, it is necessary to step outside of them and start over with non-Islamic sources, such as the writings of Jews and Christians living around the time of the conquests (pg. 3). In the first chapter, “Judeo-Hagarism,” these outside sources are used to build a picture of how the Jews perceived the “Hagarenes” who poured out of Arabia and into the Mediterranean world. What is notable here is that the Jews and Arabs are presented as having a close kinship and are not yet regarded as having two distinct religions. The second chapter, “Hagarism without Judaism,” continues the narrative and discusses how the Hagarenes break with the Jews and begin to lean towards Christianity, accepting the belief that Jesus is the Messiah (but not the Son of God or Saviour), and thus go through “[an] exchange of a Judaic for a Christian messianism” (pgs. 11-12). However, due to danger of being assimilated into Christianity, they attempt to create an autonomous religion of Abraham with its own scripture and prophet. The third chapter “The Prophet Like Moses,” further explores this development, showing how Old testament descriptions of a coming prophet are reinterpreted to fit the picture of the Arabian prophet. At this point, the Qur’an also begins to take shape, with sources such as various seventh century Christian writings being used to show that ‘Uthman had compiled it from numerous earlier writings (pg. 17). Then, in the fourth chapter, “The Samaritan Calques,” it is hypothesized that it is through the influence of Samaritanism that the concept of a special sanctuary develops, and it is after some time that Mecca is settled upon as that sanctuary. Finally, the fifth chapter, “Babylonia,” details how all of these concepts are brought together to form Islamic law and theology as it exists today.After “Whence Islam?,” the second part, “Whither Antiquity?,” is much shorter, comprising only two chapters. These two chapters are a survey of the near eastern world prior to the rise of Islam, including the various cultural, philosophical religious aspects of the lands that would eventually become part of the Islamic world. The sixth chapter, “The Imperial Civilizations,” surveys the Sassanian and Byzantine empires, and includes a discussion of the intellectual climate of each nation (The Sassanians being dominated by Zoroastrianism and the Byzantines by a combination of Christian belief, Hellenic philosophy and Roman polity). The seventh chapter, “The Near-Eastern Provinces,” does a similar survey of various lands that were under the control of these two empires prior to the rise of Islam, including Syria, Egypt and Iraq. These two chapters serve to provide a brief background on these lands and their intellectual and religious climates prior to the Islamic conquest. Part two is relatively straightforward and uncomplicated, although it is not always clear how some of the ideas connect to the making of the Islamic world.Finally, the third part, “The Collision,” brings together the ideas that were developed in the first two parts, and as the title implies, discusses the coming together of the various ideas that had developed with the rise of Islam with the ideas that were already extant, and what the results of this collision were. This is a fascinating section of the book, as it depicts the struggles that took place (and continue to take place) within the Muslim world over what to do with the pre-existing ideas that were present in the lands they conquered. The eight chapter, “The Preconditions for the Formation of Islamic Civilisation,” discusses the conditions under which Islam spread, as well as contrasts the spread of other ideas (especially the Christian religion) with the spread of Islam. The authors here state that Islam “is the outcome of a barbarian conquest of lands of very ancient cultural traditions” and as such, is “unique in history” (pg. 73). The next three chapters, collectively titled “The Fate of Antiquity,” discuss the results of the Islamic contact with extant religious, philosophical and political ideas. A wide variety of results come about, which range from an outright rejection of certain pre-Islamic ideas to an absorption of others into Islamic thought (as seen for example in the case of Iranian political ideas). The twelfth chapter, “The Fate of Hagarism,” describes the impact of this synthesis, as well as the resulting development of conflicting schools of thought. This theme is continued in the thirteenth chapter, “Sadduccee Islam,” wherein special emphasis is placed on the various strands of Shi’ism, and how they were shaped by Samaritan concepts of priesthood, as well as their assimilation of Hellenistic philosophical concepts. And in the fourteenth and final chapter, “The austerity of Islamic history,” comparisons are made between Islam and more contemporary religious ideas (such as Puritanism), showing the differing attitudes towards the influence of foreign concepts, as well as highlighting the different reactions towards these concepts within Islam, ranging from Ibn Hanbal’s strong resistance to Greek philosophical ideas (such as Neoplatonism and Epicureanism) in favour of ideas developed from within the Islamic tradition, to the Muslim philosophers’ acceptance of the aforementioned Greek ideas, as well as their adaptation into Islamic thought.Of the three parts that comprise the book, it is the first part that receives the most attention and controversy from reviewers of the book. The description of Islamic origins presented therein is completely different from every other narrative of the same origins because of the authors’ premise that the Islamic sources are, for the most part, unreliable. According to their description, Islam is actually the result of “Hagarene” invaders from Arabia adopting Judeo-Messianism, which they then replace with Christian Messianism by accepting the messiahship of Jesus, and then using Samaritan influences to come up with a distinctly Arabian prophet and sanctuary, thus sanctifying their Ishmaelite heritage. The authors even go to the point of using Judaic language for Islamic concepts, such as referring to the ulama as “rabbis.” Certainly there is merit to the view that Islam developed into what it is today as a result of influences from pre-existing religious ideas, especially from the earlier Abrahamic faiths. However, there is always the risk of placing too much emphasis upon influences from earlier sources, which makes it seem that Islam is nothing more than a mixture of old ideas, and has not contributed anything original. After all, when ideas from different places are brought together, new doctrines and practices must necessarily be developed to hold all of these beliefs together. Furthermore, it must be admitted that something original (whatever it may have been) must have developed in the Arabian peninsula; something which would meld with existing ideas to form Islam as it is known today.Also, much could be said regarding Cook and Crone’s choice of primary source material from which they build their narratives. Their rationale for rejecting the Islamic sources is that they come in during the eight century, at a time when religious ideas are emerging in the Islamic world which required historical sources to buttress them. Hence they are biased towards ideas that developed after the events described (cf. pg. 3). However, this explanation does not take into account two facts: 1) That there are many basic historical concepts that are held in common by all Muslim factions regardless of ideology, and 2) There are also many narratives in the Islamic sources that do not fit easily with Islamic beliefs and require a certain amount of reinterpretation in order to be harmonized with these beliefs (one can easily see this today in modern Muslim polemics in their attempts to explain their beliefs according to their own sources). These are hardly the kinds of traditions that would be created in an atmosphere that required traditions that can neatly justify existing viewpoints over and against other views.Furthermore, it is interesting to note the kinds of sources that they do prefer. In most discussions of early Islamic history, not much attention is given to outsiders’ view of the emerging events, which is why it is refreshing to see a work that gives these sources their due. That being said, however, it must be remembered that these are sources written by outsiders peering in, which will always inevitably introduce a level of misapprehension of what exactly is going on. Also, while the authors may claim bias for the Islamic sources, this is true of all documents, including the non-Muslim sources that the authors rely so heavily upon. For this reason, it is necessary to balance out what the Jews, Christians and Pagans have to say about early Islam with what the early Muslims have to say about themselves. True, most of these narratives do not crystallize until at least the eighth centuries. However, the Islamic tradition has ways of preserving what was passed on from previous generations, and whatever flaws these systems may have, they are to a certain degree effective in ensuring that genuine traditions get passed on.Overall, Hagarism provides an interesting (albeit somewhat skewed) interpretation of the events surrounding the making of the Islamic world. Granted, the conclusions of this book are also totally unacceptable to any Muslim who values their traditions and beliefs. Also, there are few historians who would accept their thesis today, and even the authors themselves have had to revise their views in later years as new research becomes available. Nonetheless, this book is good to read in order to get a glimpse of this chapter in the development of Islamic historiography. Also, the authors are evidently well acquainted with the relevant works that were available at that time, as evidenced by the extensive bibliography and citations in the book. It is always helpful in determining what primary sources to use in studying early Islamic history. It should just be remembered that one need not agree with Cook and Crone in their analysis of the aforementioned primary sources. Finally, there has been much development in the area of historiography in the three and a half decades that have elapsed since the publication of this work, and it would be helpful to balance this work out against more recent publications that deal with the same areas, as such publications would have more up to date research and are built upon the foundations laid by earlier works in the field. For those who have the time and resources, it would also be helpful to look into the sources listed in this book’s bibliography and analyze the sources for oneself, taking whatever statements are written in non-Muslim primary sources with a grain of salt, rather than accepting them at face value.

⭐This book is awesome. Too bad it’s out of print and ridiculously expensive ($400) for a used copy now. Cook and Crone was part of my outro-justification from ‘later Hagarism’ in to the wide world of ridda and the dar al-harb, and a baptism in to historical criticism in any and all of its forms and uses, though rarely have I seen such a sharp razor applied so thoroughly.It may be inaccurate in some details, with an overly-broad mandate which is nevertheless still overreached by authors jubilant to be breaking new ground after eight centuries of Western study (from the first translation of the Qur’an in to a Western language – the 12th c. ‘Lex Mahomet pseudoprophetae’ [the Law of Muhammad the False Prophet] by Robert of Ketton) – but this book – along with ‘The Sectarian Milieu’ (John Wansbrough [Prometheus, 1978]) – single-handedly opened the door and paved the way for critical study of Islamic history, in the same way in which Christian and (to a lesser degree, but Shahak and MacDonald are trying their best to bring it up to snuff, too) Jewish history is studied, and, later, the first steps in analysis of the Qur’an in which kuffar did not themselves internalize Islamic dogma and become mere parrots and apologists for Muhammad (with implicit threat of academic censure or even violence to those who do not toe the line: no other religious studies department, other than the Islamic studies, is allowed and expected to function as a propaganda arm for the religion it ostensibly studies in American universities), working from within a false box of a paradigm, which many from Renan to Noldeke to Goldziher had been struggling to break in fits and starts since the late 19th c.: for being the first, some flaws can be overlooked.This was the first heave pulling the birth of Hagarism (early ‘Islamic’ religion, a precursor to what would become the Islam of the Caliphates in the 2-4th (8th-10th) centuries, in to the often-touted (heretofore, incorrectly so) ‘full light of history’, concluding,’…the traditional [histories] are best understood, not as historical documents that attest to “what really happened,” but as literary texts written more than one hundred years after the facts and heavily influenced by Jewish, and to a lesser extent Christian, interconfessional polemics [situated in the Levant, with the Hijazi cities later coming to be called ‘Mecca’ and ‘Medina’ (lit. ‘the City’) as part of the later process assimilating ‘what actually happened’ to the traditional historiography]. Thus, Islamic “history” [as it has come down to us in the documents we have is] almost completely a later literary reconstruction, which evolved out of an environment of competing Jewish and Christian sects.’Still today, 40 years later, 90% of Islamic historiography is traditional hagiography in thin disguise, reciting the legends of the rise of the Arabian religion as set down by Islamic scholars a century or more after, according to that historiography, Uthman compiled the Qur’an and ordered all versions not aligned with his own destoyed (accounting for the dearth of textual witnesses available for study today). May many read this book and of the many, may a few be called and raised up as new Crones, Cooks, and Wansbroughs, to carry on the work valiantly commenced herein.

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