Table of Contents

Introduction, Herbert Berg Part I: The Qurʾān and Muḥammad 1. The Qurʾān, Nicolai Sinai 2. The Qurʾān and other scriptures, David Cook 3. The collection and canonization of the Qurʾān, Herbert Berg 4. Muḥammad, Stephen J. Shoemaker 5. The sīra, Pavel Pavlovitch 6. Ḥadīth and sunna, Jens Scheiner 7. Exegesis, Michael E. Pregill Part II: Identities and communities in early Islam 8. Identity and social formation in the early Caliphate, Peter Webb 9. Pre-Islamic Arabia and early Islam, Ilkka Lindstedt 10. Early Muslims and peoples of the book, Fred M. Donner 11. Politics and economics of the early Caliphate, Fanny Bessard 12. The myth of the "Shīʿī Perspective”: identity and memory in Early Islam, Najam Haider 13. Mysticism in early Islam: The Pre-compilations phase, Sara Sviri Part III: Modern and contemporary reinterpretation of early Islam 14. Modernists and their opponents: reading Islam, Simon Wood 15. The golden age and the contemporary political order: the Muslim Brotherhood and early Islam, Rachel M. Scott 16. Salafīs: past to present, present to past, Jeffrey T. Kenney 17. Feminist Muslim (re)interpretations of early Islam, Aisha Geissinger Part IV: Revisioning early Islam 18. Early Islam: an alternative scenario of its emergence, Markus Gross 19. Qurʾānists, Daniel W. Brown 20. In search of authenticity: modern discourse over homosexuality through early Islam, Sara Omar 21. True history in black and white: reimagined origins in the Nation of Islam, Herbert Berg 22. Invocations of early Islam in US discourse(s) of Muslim pluralism , Justine Howe

About the Author

Herbert Berg is Professor of Religion in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, and Director of International Studies, University of North Carolina Wilmington. He holds a Ph.D. in the Study of Religion from the University of Toronto. His research focuses on Islamic origins, the Nation of Islam, and method and theory in the study of early Islam.