The chapter about idol worship in Maqrizi's Universal History includes excerpts from books that are no longer extant. They make it harder to argue against the import or even the very existence of pre-Islamic idol worship.

This volume includes twenty articles published between 1994 and 2020 on the subject of Muhammad and the history of early Islam, covered in five sections: Arabia on the Eve of Islam, Muḥammad at Medina, Muḥammad and the Jews, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq and the sīra and Studies on Early Islamic Literature. The book focuses on a variety of historical questions, from the presumed Ghassanid/Byzantine involvement in the hijra and Muḥammad’s treaties with the main Jewish tribes. Predilection for detail, especially in the realms of genealogy and geography, is a salient characteristic of Lecker’s research, which in recent years has been increasingly based on digitized text repositories. Many of the articles deal with the social and economic environment or early Islam, which is vital for the study of Muḥammad’s biography. They are conceived of as building blocks in a future, refined and critical biography of the Arabian prophet. Studies on the Life of Muhammad and the Dawn of Islam will appeal to those interested in the history of pre- and early Islam, with an emphasis on Muḥammad’s life and his relations with the Jews of Arabia.

The emergence of Islam has in recent years become a matter of heated debate, mainly because Islamic historiography is a battle-field of contradictory versions of the past. In this second collection of studies, several of which appear here for the first time, Michael Lecker distances himself from the clash of theories, concentrating instead on several basic issues. They all belong to the preparatory work that still remains to be done on the social and economic environment in which Islam emerged. The volume includes the following sections: Arabia on the Eve of Islam; Muhammad and his Companions; and Arabian Tribes in Pre- and Early Islamic Arabia. The third section includes much extended and fully-documented versions of nine Encyclopaedia of Islam articles dealing with Arabian tribes and tribal society.

Most of the articles in this volume belong to what can be described as the preparatory work which is prerequisite to the study of pre- and early Islamic history. Lecker's interests include tribal Arabia (including tribes in the Yemen and Hadramawt), the history of the Arabian Jews, the biography of the Prophet Muhammad, and early Islamic literature in general. While the studies are based on a wide range of sources, they often focus on illuminating small accounts which are analyzed and placed in their historical context. The comprehensive index renders the articles easily accessible.

Muslims, Jews and Pagans examines in much detail the available source material on the 'Aliya area south of Medina on the eve of Islam and at the time of the Prophet Muhammad. 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.