G. W. Bowersock is Professor Emeritus of Ancient History at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.
The Crucible of Islam is a remarkable work of scholarship.
*Wall Street Journal*
Erudite and lucid…Bowersock’s fluency with specialist literature
and his ability to transform scattered research into a coherent
narrative are admirable.
*Times Literary Supplement*
To write about the Arabian background of the Prophet Muhammad,
about the origin of Islam in Mecca and Medina, and about the first
conquests that led to the formation of the Arab empire (roughly
between 560 and 690 AD) is to attempt to describe the first moments
of a supernova—the flash of a stupendous detonation that marks the
death of a massive star and the release of enormous amounts of
energy. G.W. Bowersock has met this challenge in a little book of
explosive originality and penetrating judgment…With The Crucible of
Islam we reach the very center of this roiling world. We look into
the depths of the crucible itself, to seize, in a true historical
perspective, the ‘molten ingredients’ that came to form Islam. His
book is an exercise in the art of historical truth. Bowersock is a
classical scholar. He derives his skills from a tradition that
reaches back to the Renaissance, to Erasmus and to Lorenzo Valla,
whose demolition of the legendary Donation of Constantine he has
himself translated with gusto. His book derives its strength from
the method advocated by the great classical scholar Richard Bentley
(1662–1742): ratio et res ipsa—reason confronting the thing
itself…Part of the joy of reading this account of the background
and emergence of early Islam is the knowledge that Bowersock has
built it from solid stones, the weight of every one of which he has
tested with his own critical mind. Secure that we are in the hands
of a master, let us think about the implications of the substantial
gains to scholarship that Bowersock has brought us in this
compressed masterpiece…We must be grateful to Bowersock for giving
us, at this time, a masterpiece of the historian’s craft.
*New York Review of Books*
An impressive undertaking…A tour de force of late antiquity, deftly
interrogating the interconnections and relations between major and
minor Middle Eastern powers to ‘provide a glimpse into the chaotic
environment that made Islam possible.’
*Religious Studies Review*
[An] inspiring and broad-sighted approach that Bowersock brings
with this book to the lively field of Islamic origins.
*Speculum*
This work is highly recommended for those interested in the
religious and political attitudes that gave rise to Islam.
*Booklist*
This is an invaluable examination of the origins of a great
religion.
*Choice*
Bowersock paints a concise portrait of Islam’s early formation and
consolidation, focusing on the political, social, economic, and
religious conditions of 6th- and 7th-century Arabia…Bowersock
clearly and succinctly describes the stage upon which Islam
emerged, and also dispels certain rumors, myths, and half-histories
that have come to dominate popular notions of the period (and even
persist in scholarship)…Given the historical and current
relationships and tensions among various groups of Jews,
Christians, and Muslims, this brief and easily digestible
introduction will interest and please a wide variety of
readers.
*Publishers Weekly*
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