.... The study of early Islam is fraught with just these methodological difficulties, arising out of the problematic nature of the sources.
In the Islamic tradition there are two main bodies of literature: on the one hand the documents of early Islamic history and on the other the Hadith literature, which are collections of the sayings and anecdotes about and attributed to the Prophet.
The Qur’an itself is very problematic because it does not provide a narrative (as the Old and New Testaments do in their own ways) but rather show us inside Muhammad’s mind (or God’s, depending on your point of view). [The New Journalist] Read more
