Muhammad and The Jews — Page 6
In other words, whatever past the historian chooses to discover, he does it with the historical consciousness of his time. "There is not a part of history which is objective-the facts-and another part-the historian's interpretation or judgment-which is subjective. Judg- ment and interpretation are equally inherent in deciding what are facts, which are the relevant ones in a certain context, and how significant they are. " 1 Ibn Isl:iaq, al-W:iqidi and Ibn Sa"'d, who wrote during the early Abbiisid period, have been closely scrutinised in terms of Shi"'ite and Sunnite partisanship, or their bias towards B. Umayyah or B. al-"' Abbas. Muslim historians and orientalists have been so pre- occupied with "the outbreak of the fitna" 2 and the early schism in Islam that they have overlooked the total environment in which the eighth/ninth century sirah and maghiizi writers worked. They noted Shi"'ite and Sunnite tendencies of their early authors, their Umayyad and Abbasid bias, and their attitude to the prevailing theological controversies. But the historical consciousness of Ibn IsJ:i:iq and others was influenced by several other factors also. As Petersen observes: "The Abbasid period's political situations might have in- fluenced the historical recorders' changing attitudes to the earliest history of Islam. "3 But these situations did not involve only "the new rulers' settling with their revolutionary past, the coalition with Shi"'ism in the combat against the Syrian caliphate". 4 New lands were being conquered, more and more non-Arab and non-Muslims with their distinct cultures, languages and religions were entering the world of Islam. They brought new ideas and new problems. All these new elements had an impact on the thinking of the early authors. From our point of view their attitude to contemporary Jewish life under the Abbasids is a vital factor in judging the information they impart on the relations of the Jews with the Apostle. Our earliest and most important source for events which took place in the Apostle's lifetime is MuJ:iammad ibn IsJ:i:iq b. Yasiir b. Khiyiir who was born in Medina in about 85/704 during the last year of "'Abd al-Malik's reign. His grandfather, Yas:ir, was among those 1 Gordon Leff, History and Social Theory (University, Ala. : The University of Alabama Press, 1969), p. 124. 2 Erling Ladewig Petersen, c. Ali and Mu. . iiwiya in Early Arabic Tradition (Copenhagen, 1964), p. 18. Odense University Press published a new edition in 1974. 3 Petersen, p. 19. 4 !bid. , p. 178.