The Ta'rikh al-Rusu1 wa 'l-HulUk of Abu Ja 'far Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari (ca. 228-310 A.H.) has, since its recovery • in the last century, been considered the most important primary source for the study of the first three centuries of Islam. However, due to the author's technique of reporting his information, scholars have generally regarded al-tabari as a compiler and chronicler, using the Ta' rikh only to verify factual information, 'complaining of its disorganization and tediousness, and dismissing any notion that the author could have expressed opinions or attitudes of his own. It is the contention of this thesis that al-T• abari did indicate his attitudes towards past events and that his contemporary readers cou1d easily have perceived his opinions and his perspective of early Islamic history. By analyzing five sections from the Ta'rikh, each representing one of the major time spans included in the work, and by paying particular attention to al-~abari's use of isnads (chains of narrators) and his organization and juxtaposition of akbbar (narrations), we will attempt to determine his attitudes towards these events and his sources, and his thoughts on the development of the Islamic umma from its conception to his own time. A comparison of al-Tabari1s treatment of these incidents with the accounts' • of three other contemporary historians will help to expose the differences between them and allow us to understand why the Ta'rikh remains the outstanding primary source for the first three centuries of Islam.

In approaching the scientific literature on the UNESCO world heritage site of Palmyra for the first time, any scholar would be immediately struck by the number of studies devoted to the Roman phase of the settlement – roughly 1st-third quarter of the 3rd century. By contrast, contributions on late antique and early Islamic Palmyra have never been numerous, reflecting both the preference granted by current scholarship to the study of Roman remains and the paucity of archaeological and written evidence at our disposal to cast light on this period. Admittedly, works on post-273 Palmyra have grown significantly in number in the last couple of decades. Yet, almost the totality of them has often been confined to the examination of items of circumstantial evidence. We still lack an organic publication that attempts a systematic overview of these works and tries to contextualise the history of the city in a broader geographic and chronological framework. Numerous questions, such as the fate of the city in the 5th century, remain to be answered; other evidence, such as the bulk of early Arabic written sources, still has to be fully explored. This dissertation presents an examination of those evidence that are useful to better understand the historical development of the settlement from the fall of Zenobia and the second Palmyrene revolt (272-273) to the collapse of the Umayyad caliphate (750). The civilian and military character of the city is investigated through the analysis of specific themes for which enough evidence is available to work with. Besides written sources and published archaeological evidence, archival material is used to cast more light on a selected number of specific items of evidence. The final output of this study is to present a comprehensive history of the post-Roman settlement to be taken as a starting point for future discussion on the topic.

Notre étude tente à partir de la Ḥilyat al-awliyā’ wa-ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyā’ de Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī (m. 430/1038) de mieux préciser les contours de la notion de sainteté sunnite dans les trois premiers siècles de l’Islam, telle qu’elle fut construite dans la tradition hagiographique à partir de la fin du 4e/Xe siècle. La walāya (sainteté) apparaît dans la Ḥilya comme la notion centrale dans laquelle se rejoignent deux formes de piété pourtant divergentes en islamologie : la piété ascétique (zuhd) des premières générations qui exprimerait avec emphase l’obéissance à un Dieu transcendant et la piété mystique (taṣawwuf) des générations ultérieures à partir de la fin du 3e/IXe siècle qui concernerait par contraste la communion avec un Dieu immanent et révélé. Pour mieux comprendre comment Abū Nu’aym les réconcilie, nous avons cherché à déconstruire son projet de légitimation consistant à rattacher le taṣawwuf aux premiers modèles intègres de piété ascétique. Nous nous sommes efforcée particulièrement à analyser les pratiques langagières et spirituelles des premiers ascètes, pour les mettre en parallèle avec celles des mystiques des 3e/IXe et 4e/Xe siècles, et ceci, au travers de trois supports d’herméneutique : les traditions judaïsantes (isrā’iliyyāt), les exégèses coraniques et enfin la Sunna et la figure du Prophète. Il en ressort que c’est précisément dans l’expérience eschatologique que les premières générations de dévots et d’ascètes et les générations suivantes de soufis accèdent au statut de saints (awliyā’), leur attribuant la juste compréhension de la Révélation et la charge de sa transmission. / This study, based on Abū Nuʿaym’s Ḥilyat al-awliyā’ wa-ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyā’, aims to define the contours of Islamic sainthood (walāya) during the first three centuries of Islam, as progressively defined in the hagiography from the 4th/10th century. In the Ḥilya the walāya is the central notion in which ascetic piety (zuhd) and mystic piety (taṣawwuf) meet. Current research insists on their fundamental difference, the former being characterised by the obedience to a transcendental God and the latter expressing, in contrast, the experience of communion with an immanent and revealed God. To better understand how Abu Nu’aym reconciles both notions, the study revisits and specifies his goal of legitimising taṣawwuf by linking it with the paragons of ascetic piety. The study especially strives to analyse the language and spiritual practices of the early ascetics in light of those of the mystics in the 3rd/9th and 4th/10th centuries. We have used three hermeneutic criteria : the ‘Judaising’ traditions (isrā’iliyyāt), the quranic exegesis and, lastly, the Sunna and figure of the Prophet. It emerges that the first generations of devotees and ascetics and the following generations of sufis attained, in the eschatological experience, the status of saints (awliyā’) enabling them to adequately understand and transmit the Revelation.

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My goal in this thesis is to concentrate on the origins of Islam as we can understand it from the Quran itself, without using other, later sources. At the same time, I am interested in the relationship between pre-Islamic Arabia and early Islam. My method will be based primarily on Mary Douglas and her grid- group analysis. This British anthropologist attempted to analyse different social situations, in which various systems of understanding the world are formulated, using the parameters of "group" (the degree to which the borders of a group are defined) and "grid" (the number of rules by which an individual is controlled). These two parameters then made it possible for her to classify different cosmologies according to their ideas and their social reality. Applying this method, I will attempt to extract from the Quran - not primarily a narrative text - a description of the change of early Muslims' social situation and development of their religious ideas which is connected to it, and I will attempt to use Mary Douglas' anthropology to explain how such a transformation happened and could happen. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Over the last fourteen-hundred years, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah (d. 632) has been depicted and portrayed in a variety of ways by numerous scholars, theologians, and polemicists. My dissertation offers a unique approach to the “historical Muhammad” as it develops a new method to examine extant primary sources related to his life. I include available sources that provide pertinent information on Muhammad’s life, including the Qur’an, hadith literature, sira-maghazi (biographies and expeditions), and non-Muslim accounts. My research is original because it adopts current historical Jesus scholarship, particularly modern cognitive studies of memory, and uses it on extant sources related to Muhammad’s life. More specifically, I explore how memory, oral tradition, and oral transmission play vital roles in understanding how Muslims remembered their Prophet and how the circumstances of later generations shaped and influenced their commemoration of his life. By adopting this scholarship, which will be contextualized to examine early Muslim literature, I offer a new perspective on surviving sources, the context of seventh-century Arabia, and the function of memory for the nascent Muslim community. I also apply my method on eight significant, polemical, or neglected events that are traditionally believed to have taken place during Muhammad’s life in Mecca and Medina. In sum, my dissertation offers a dynamic cross-disciplinary venture, encompassing the intersection of innovative, modern critical inquiry and early Islamic literature. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation examines the field of the “historical Muhammad” and applies a new method on extant primary sources related to Muhammad’s life. I conduct a literature review of scholars’ reconstructions of his life, beginning as early as the seventh century. I also explore numerous primary sources on Muhammad, pointing out their benefits and disadvantages. Next, I overview the quests for the historical Jesus and analyze methods that were established over the last hundred years. In my dissertation, I adopt historical Jesus scholarship, namely memory studies, to develop an original method that provides a unique understanding and fresh perspective of the historical Muhammad. Over the last two chapters, I conduct eight case studies employing my method on events from Muhammad’s life in Mecca and Medina. This dissertation demonstrates that we could reconstruct a reasonably coherent picture of events surrounding Muhammad’s life.

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