{"collection":"Texts of Islam","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_isl_isl11_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_isl_isl11_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_isl_isl_isl11_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/isl/isl11.htm","summary":"This is a scholarly introduction to the earliest Islamic biography, the *S\u012bra* of Ibn Is\u1e25\u0101q (d. 768 CE), followed by extended primary-source excerpts from that work translated into English. The framing essay situates Muhammad's emergence within a specific geopolitical context \u2014 the collapse of South Arabian civilization, the Byzantine-Persian wars, and the declining caravan economy of Mecca \u2014 arguing that the rise of Islam is inseparable from this moment of regional instability and spiritual ferment. The excerpts themselves present foundational narrative material: Muhammad's first revelation on Mount Hir\u0101', his initial terror and suicidal despair, Khad\u012bja's steadying response, the Christian scholar Waraqa's recognition of the prophetic pattern, and the sequence of the first converts (Khad\u012bja, \u02bfAl\u012b, Zayd, Ab\u016b Bakr). A distinctive editorial claim runs throughout: Ibn Is\u1e25\u0101q's collection is praised precisely for its relative sobriety \u2014 closer to historical source material than later, more miracle-laden accounts \u2014 even while the editor acknowledges individual had\u012bths must be assessed on their own merits. The excerpt concludes with an early apologetic speech by Ja\u02bffar ibn Ab\u012b \u1e6c\u0101lib before the Negus of Abyssinia, framing Islam as a civilizing reform of pre-Islamic Arabian society. Readers interested in early Islamic historiography, the textual transmission of the *S\u012bra*, or the historical context of Muhammad's mission will find this a substantive, primary-source-grounded entry point.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"Islam: Chapter Two: The \u1e24ad\u012bth: The News of God's Messenger: 1. Muhammad the Messenger","tradition":"Texts of Islam","translated_text":null,"word_count":3931}