“Muslims” and “Islam” in Middle Eastern Literature of the Seventh and Eighth Centuries AD: An Alternative perspective of West European oriental scholarship

Authors

• Marcin Grodzki

Abstract

The article presents a short overview of the works of researchers affiliated with the new German Oriental Institute called Inarah, known for its unconventional revisionist interpretations of the origins of Islam. On the grounds of archaeological, epigraphic, numismatic, and literary sources, the Inarah scholars attempt to challenge the traditional Islamic account of history and dogmatics in relation to the early stages of the Muslim faith, its evolution, and the first contacts of the Arab-Muslim empire with the western world. This article focuses on selected results of studies by the Inarah Institute concerning the emergence of the terms “Islam” and “Muslims” in non-Arabic, Middle Eastern literature (prevailingly
Christian) of the seventh and eighth centuries AD.
The Middle Eastern authors from the seventh and eighth centuries, the first two centuries of Islam, have left a rich and diverse literary heritage, illustrating an unhindered development of culture and unrestrained religious activities. The Inarah Institute’s critical linguistic and historiographical analysis attempts to prove that texts before the early eighth century do not contain any mention of “the Muslim character of power in the Arab empire” and that, when referring to Arabs, “the original source texts use neither the term ‘Islam’ nor ‘Muslims’” (Ohlig 2007: 223–325). In this way, the revisionists deny the common version of history, undermine the historical credibility of the Muslim tradition, and criticise conventional oriental scholarship in the West for a supposed lack of critical scientific approach in its studies on the origins of Islam.