Description:
Through application of modern historiographical analysis and scriptural exegesis, the book explores the space between factual history and interpretive history, or histoire. Muhammad al-Tabari's History, written about 300 years after the establishment of Islam, is one of the religion's most important commentaries.
Review Quotes: This is an outstanding work on all accounts. It takes on a major challenge, being the critical examination of the cultural and textual roots of an important Islamic text. The authors demonstrate unusual competence in dealing with these kinds of literatures and, by doing so, are making a substantial, original and timely contribution to the study of Islam and appreciating the challenges facing Muslim scholars today. (Emeritus Professor Gary D Bouma, UNESCO Chair in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations - Asia Pacific, Monash University, Australia)
Power-Knowledge in Tabari's Histoire of Islam offers readers a penetrating look at the construction of Islamic origins in Tabari's foundational history. Through this work readers will appreciate Islamic historiography with all of its political, social, and religious complexity. The authors not only shed new light on the motivations behind the founding narratives of Islam, they also show how appreciating the constructed nature of these narratives is a first step to overcoming pejorative notions of the other in today's world. (Gabriel Said Reynolds, Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology, University of Notre Dame, USA)