Notes 283edited by Wilferd Madelung (1985), as well as Montgomery Watt’s previously cited
The Formative Period of Islamic Thought. The beliefs of the Mu‘tazilah are discussed
in detail by Richard S. Martin, Mark R. Woodward, and Dwi S. Atmaja in Defenders
of Reason in Islam (1997), while the Ash‘arite position is laid out in Richard
McCarthy, The Theology of the Ash‘ari (1953). Al-Tahawi’s quote, as well as the creeds
of Abu Hanifah, Ibn Hanbal, and al-Ash‘ari, are all taken from Montgomery Watt’s
invaluable compilation, Islamic Creeds: A Selection (1994). See also George F.
Hourani, Islamic Rationalism: The Ethics of Abd al-Jabbar (1971).
Excellent translations of Ibn Rushd include his commentary on Aristotle’s
Metaphysics, translated by Charles Genequand (1984); The Epistle on the Possibility of
Conjunction with the Active Intellect, translated by Kalman P. Bland (1982); and Aver-
roes’ Three Short Commentaries on Aristotle’s “Topics,” “Rhetoric,” and “Poetics,” trans-
lated by Charles E. Butterworth (1977). It is important to note that the two-truth
theory is a misnomer, because according to Ibn Rushd, philosophical truth is the
only truth. For Ibn Sina, see his biography, The Life of Ibn Sina, translated by Wil-
liam E. Gohlman (1974), and his Treatise on Logic, translated by Farhang Zabeeh
(1971).
For more on oral peoples, see Denise Lardner Carmody and John Tully Car-
mody, Original Visions: The Religions of Oral Peoples (1993). For the role of poets and
poetry in the cult of the Ka‘ba, see Michael Sells, Desert Tracings: Six Classical Ara-
bian Odes (1989). Mohammed Bamyeh presents a wonderful discussion of the field
of miracle in his chapter titled “The Discourse and the Path” in The Social Origins of
Islam, pp. 115–40. My argument is completely indebted to his. See also Cragg, The
Event of the Qur’an, p. 67. Daya’s quote is from Annemarie Schimmel, And Muham-
mad Is His Messenger (1985) p. 67.
As will become apparent, there are some Muslims whose devotionalism has led
to a number of apocryphal stories about the miraculous acts of Muhammad and his
Companions. However, orthodox Islam flatly rejects these stories, considering
Muhammad to be just an empty vessel through which the Quran was revealed—
someone who should be emulated, but not worshipped like Christ. Incidentally, al-
Tabari narrates a particularly strange account of Muhammad snapping his fingers to
uproot a date tree and transport it to himself (p. 1146). But this story, like similar
ones about Ali raising people from the dead or walking on water, were primarily
apologetic in nature and meant to silence those critics who were accustomed to
prophets doing tricks to prove their divine mission.
For a more comprehensive examination of the debate over the created Quran, I
suggest Harry Austryn Wolfson, The Philosophy of Kalam, especially pages 235–78.
My quotations of Ibn Hazm and Ibn Kullab are from Wolfson’s text. For more on
the role and function of baraka in Islamic calligraphy, see Seyyed Hossein Nasr,
Islamic Art and Spirituality (1987). For general comments on baraka in the Quran,
see the first chapter of John Renard, Seven Doors to Islam (1996). William Graham’s
insightful article, “Qur’an as Spoken Word,” can be found in Approaches to Islam in
Religious Studies, edited by Richard C. Martin (2001). There are two kinds of
Quranic recitation: tajwid (embellished) and tartil (measured). The latter is less
musical and used primarily for worship. See Lois Ibsen al-Faruqi, “The Cantillation
of the Qur’an,” in Asian Music (1987), and Kristina Nelson, “Reciter and Listener:
Some Factors Shaping the Mujawwad Style of Qur’anic Reciting,” in Ethnomusicol-
ogy (1987).
There are six collections of hadith that are considered canonical: al-Bukhari’s;
al-Hajjaj’s; as-Sijistani’s (d. 875); al-Tirmidhi’s (d. 915); al-Nasa’i’s (d. 915); and Ibn