RESOURCESEroberungszeit als historische Quellen fur die Behandlung der unter-
worfenen Nicht-Muslime durch ihre neuen muslimischen Oberher-
ren," in T. Nagel et al., Studien zum Minderheiten-problem im Islam
(Bonn, 1973), I: 312).
The rehabilitation of these sources argues mainly for their authen-
ticity. However, for two reasons even authentic material may not
necessarily be reliable. In the first place, even genuine original accounts
by eyewitnesses possess a subjective partisan quality and present a
point of view often intended to justify or to condemn. In the second
place, authentic early accounts have been transmitted selectively, some-
times in a way reflecting the biases of the transmitters, so the surviving
accounts are not necessarily complete. In general, the problems of
interpreting early Islamic history have less to do with the lack of
authentic information than with its partisan nature.
Non-Arabic literature and non-Muslim literature in Arabic is useful
for three reasons. Its major importance lies in the vantage point it
provides: an outlook on events that reveals the reactions of the native
populations and their internal problems. Second, such material alone
makes it possible to go beyond matters affecting the Muslim, Arab
ruling elite. Third, it contains additional information about political
history and incidental references to social and economic conditions.
J. B. Segal was too discouraging about the general usefulness of Syriac
chronicles in "Syriac Chronicles As Source Material for the History
of Islamic Peoples," in Historians of the Middle East, ed. B. Lewis
and P. M. Holt (London, 1964), pp. 246-58. The communal orien-
tation of these materials, including Muslim Arabic literature, reflects
a major contemporary trend in itself; but they all contain information
useful for social, economic, and intellectual history, and must be con-
sulted if we are to understand this period as a whole rather than only
one of the ruling or subject communities within it. However, there is
no use pretending that by appealing to Syriac, Greek, or Hebrew
literature, one can escape the problems of Arabic literature. Non-
Arabic literatures present the same problems of partisanship and
anachronism, and whatever standards of criticism are applied to Ar-
abic literature should be applied to the others as well.
But a sensitive and perceptive researcher can turn the subjective
quality of all of these materials into an advantage. Multiple versions
of an event can be used to identify attitudes, gauge feelings, and chart
the development of issues in a way which would be impossible with
truly objective sources. Arabic literature will yield to sophisticated