One of the most significant and least analyzed aspects of the Riddah or "apostasy" which occurred in the last years of Muhammad's life and in the caliphate of Abu Bakr (632-634) is the fact that the most adamant opposition to the incipient religious-economic political system of Islam in all regions of Arabia except al-Bahrayn and 'Uman was directed by the so-called "false prophets," four of whom are known by name: al-Aswad (Yemen), Tulayhah b. Khuwaylid (B. Asad), Sajah (B. Tamim), and Musaylimah b. habib (al-Yamamah). The most significant of these "false prophets," and the one on which the most infonnation is available, ls Musaylimah. With an army of allegedly 40,000 men he crushed two Muslim armies before being overwhelmed by a third, under the Muslim general Khalid b. al-Walid. Some accounts report that even in the victorious third battle, enough Qur'an reciters were lost to cause concern over the perpetuation of the Qur'an. Both V.V. Barthold and W. Montgomery Watt have assessed Musaylimah's movement to have been the most serious threat faced by the nascent Isiamic state. With the exception of V.V. Barthold, scholars dealing with the first half of the seventh century in Arabia have neglected to examine in detail the source materials on Musaylimah's movement - its formation, its membership, its organization, and the question of why it offered such bitter resistance to incorporation in the Islamic movement even when military defeat was imminent. This study is intended to fill that gap in our knowledge as far as possible, by gathering and critically analyzing materials in the primary (and secondary) sources relevant to the study of Musaylimah. From these I hope to present an account of his movement as comprehensive and coherent as the sources will permit.

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