“interpreted” in other languages):
The Koran, tr. Edward H. Palmer. Oxford: Clarendon Press,1900.
The Koran Interpreted, tr. A. J. Arberry. New York: Macmillan,1955.
The Koran, tr. N. J. Dawood. London: Penguin,1956.
CONTEMPORARY SOURCES
This book is especially indebted to the work of the
following scholars, listed here by area of expertise.
The Early Caliphate
Wilferd Madelung’s The Succession to Muhammad: A
Study of the Early Caliphate (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1997) is a magisterial study of the
caliphates of Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman, and Ali, based
on close reading of original sources. Extensively and
fascinatingly footnoted, it emphasizes Ali’s claim to the
succession.
Marshall G. S. Hodgson’s The Venture of Islam:
Conscience and History in a World Civilization is a three-
Volume study of the historical development of Islamic
civilization, with numerous tables of time lines. The
Classical Age or Islam, Vol. 1 (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1961) covers the rise of Muhammad to