This work purports to fill a lacuna that Muslim scholars have not been able to fill (at least adequately, in Bowersock’s view) with regard to the origins of Islam. Bowersock utilizes a variety of sources. In nine chapters, plus a prologue, he spells out his thesis, looking at Islamic and non-Islamic sources, archeological findings, and inscriptions. The book can be divided into three, disparate, sections: Chapters 1 to 3 lay out, to borrow Wansbrough’s phrase, the “sectarian milieu” of sixth-century Arabia in a compelling manner.1 Chapters 6 to 8 (clearly not Bowersock’s area of expertise) purport to provide the early history of Islam. Chapters 5 and 9 (ostensibly containing the main point) examine Jerusalem under the Persians and the Muslims, respectively.
The book lacks cohesion; it reads like a series of disjointed essays/lectures (the majority of which are poor scholarship) hastily assembled. The reader is left constantly wondering where...