The Convergence of Judaism and Islam. Religious, Scientific, and Cultural Dimensions
The Use of Islamic Materials by Non-Muslim Writers r 103
- It seems that this role of the indigenous population did not stop with Muhammad’s
death. It is narrated that a monk in Damascus read a Greek inscription that predicted the
future victories of the ̔Abbasids. Shams al-Din Muhammad b. ̔Ali Ibn Tulun al-Salihi
(1485–1536/880–953), Qurrat al- ̔Uyun fi akhbar bab jirun, ed. S. Munajjid (Damascus:
al-Majma ̔ al- ̔ilmi al- ̔arabi, 1964), 8 (quoting Ibn al- ̔Asakir, Ta’rikh madinat dimashq).
- Mahmoud Ayoub, The Qur’an and Its Interpreters (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992),
296 (quoting al-Tabari); Abu al-Hasan ̔Ali b. Ahmad al-Naysaburi [Nisaburi] al-Wa-
hidi (d. 468/1075), Kitab asbab al-nuzul, ed. W. al-Zakari (Beirut: al-Maktaba al- ̔Asriya,
1421/2000), 53; Moshe Gil, “Religion and Realities in Islamic Taxation,” Israel Oriental
Studies 10 (1980): 21–25. Gil accepts these literary traditions as authentic historical docu-
ments. I do not agree with his interpretation.
- Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn al-Tayyib al-Baqillani (d. 1015), Kitab al-bayan (Miracle
and Magic: A Treatise on the Nature of the Apologetic Miracle and Its Differentiation from
Charisms, Trickery, Divination, Magic, and Spells), ed. Richard J. McCarthy (Beirut: Li-
brairie Orientale, 1958), 82–83 (§ 97), 86 (§ 106).
- Montgomery W. Watt, Muhammad at Medina (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1956), 197.
- Abu al-Bakr Ahmad ibn Husayn al-Bayhaqi (384–458/994–1066), Dala’il al-
nubuwwa wa-ma ̔rifat akhwal sahib al-shari ̔a, ed. Abd al-Muti ̔ Qal ̔aji (Beirut: Dar
al-Kutub al- ̔Ilmiyah, 1405/1985), 6: 260–61, 266–67.
- Raif George Khoury, Wahb b. Munabbih, das Heidelberger Papyrus (Wiesbaden:
O. Harrassowitz, 1972), 1:118; Muhammad Ibn Sa ̔d (784–845), Kitab al-tabaqat al-kabir
(Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1994), 1:162–63; Ahmad b. Wadih al-Ya ̔qubi, Ta’rikh (Historiae), ed.
M. Th. Houtsma (Leiden: Brill, 1883/1969), 2:5–7.
- Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-nabawiyya, ed. al-Saqa et al. (Cairo, 1971), 1:191–94; Abu al-
Hasan ̔Ali al-Mas ̔udi (d. c. 345/956), Muruj al-dhahab wa-ma ̔adin al-jawahir, ed. Ch.
Pellat (Beirut: L’Universite Libanaise, 1974), 1:83 (§ 150); Jalal al-Din Abu al-Faraj ̔Abd al-
Rahman b. ̔Ali Ibn al-Jawzi (510–597/1117–1201), al-Wafa bi-ahwal al-Mustafa, ed. M. A.
̔Ata’ (Beirut: Dar al-kutub al- ̔ilmiyya, 1408/1988), 141 (who names the monk Nastora).
Among Muslim commentators it is common to connect this episode with Quran 5:82.
- This monastery (Dair al-Ba ̔iqi) was visited by Muslim pilgrims as late as the late
Abbasid period. Abu al-Hasan ̔Ali b. Abi Bakr al-Harawi (d. 611/1215), Kitab al- ̔isharat
ila ma ̔rifat al-ziyarat, ed. A. ̔Umar (Cairo: Maktabat al-Thiqafa, 1423/2002), 24.
- Albrecht Noth (in collaboration with L. Conrad), The Early Arabic Historical Tra-
dition: A Source-Critical Study, translated from the German by Michael Bonner (Princ-
eton: Darwin Press, 1994), 19, 167.
- Abu al- ̔Abbas Ahmad b. Yahya ibn-Jabir al-Baladhuri (d. ca. 279/892), Futuh al-
Buldan, ed. M. De Goeje (Leiden: Brill, 1866), 141.
- Qutb al-Din Musa b. Muhammad al-Yunini (d. 726/1326), Dhayl mir’at al zaman
[sequel to the mirror of the time] (Haydar-Abbad, 1380/1961), 2:253 (ah 701).
- The Arabic sources refer to this document also as the covenant ( ̔ahd), contract
stipulations (shurut), or treaties ( ̔aqd) of ̔Umar. They argue that the caliph signed these
agreements with Jewish and Christian inhabitants of the cities that the Islamic armies
