ebooks Studies in Early Islamic History (Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam; No. 4) by Martin Hinds; Jere L. Bacharach; Editor; Patricia Crone; Lawrence I. Conrad in History

Review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. the 650s and the 750sBy David Reid RossThis is a collection of nine works by Martin Hinds (d. 1988) on Islamic history. Six of them deal with the times from `Uthman up to the battle of Siffeen. Two deal with the `Abbasids. One deals with the distinction between sira and maghazi; which you can use to study history in either period.There is no overall theme in these essays; other than the pure study of events in history. Hinds believed that Muslim history could be had through averaging out the hadith; in which attitude he presaged Wilferd Madelung's more coherent work on the fitna; a decade later.Two of those former six essays I mentioned (#5; #8) deal with Sayf b `Umar; a controversial early-`Abbasi historian with tribal bias whose work is mostly preserved in Tabari. The first essay takes Sayf at his word; the other checks Sayf against what is known of the conquest of Persia and... proves Sayf about the worst liar in Islamic historiography if not ever. (Further reading has turned up that Hinds #8 is not the first nor the last article to call shenanigans on Sayf.) That makes that earlier essay #5 on Sayf hard for me to swallow.The first four essays deal with Iraqi politics in the 650s; and dismiss Sayf. These; with #8 the second [anti]Sayf essay; are the book's standouts. Keep in mind that the article on the Siffin Arbitration has the text in Arabic with no translation; fortunately; you can get that translation online or at least in Tabari now.I recommend this book to students of the 650s leading to that first fitna. I also recommend this book to those (Shi`ites and Jews) who are tired of Wahhabis citing "Tabari" - that is; Sayf - against them.One unhappy point: I bought this book when it was cheaper. I don't think it is worth $400; which I am seeing now. My four-star mark reflects the price I originally paid for it.