The oldest Islamic biography of Muhammad, written in the
mid-eighth century, relates that the prophet died at Medina in 632,
while earlier and more numerous Jewish, Christian, Samaritan, and
even Islamic sources indicate that Muhammad survived to lead the
conquest of Palestine, beginning in 634-35. Although this
discrepancy has been known for several decades, Stephen J.
Shoemaker here writes the first systematic study of the various
traditions.Using methods and perspectives borrowed from biblical
studies, Shoemaker concludes that these reports of Muhammad's
leadership during the Palestinian invasion likely preserve an early
Islamic tradition that was later revised to meet the needs of a
changing Islamic self-identity. Muhammad and his followers appear
to have expected the world to end in the immediate future, perhaps
even in their own lifetimes, Shoemaker contends. When the
eschatological Hour failed to arrive on schedule and continued to
be deferred to an ever more distant point, the meaning of
Muhammad's message and the faith that he established needed to be
fundamentally rethought by his early followers.The larger purpose
of "The Death of a Prophet" exceeds the mere possibility of
adjusting the date of Muhammad's death by a few years; far more
important to Shoemaker are questions about the manner in which
Islamic origins should be studied. The difference in the early
sources affords an important opening through which to explore the
nature of primitive Islam more broadly. Arguing for greater
methodological unity between the study of Christian and Islamic
origins, Shoemaker emphasizes the potential value of non-Islamic
sources for reconstructing the history of formative Islam.
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