Muhammad is Not the Father of Any of Your Men: The Making of the Last Prophet »

David S. Powers is Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University. He is author of Law, Society and Culture in the Maghrib, 1300-1500.

David Powers claims that the need for Muhammad to be the "seal of all prophets," combined with the fact that Muhammad apparently had an adopted son, Zayd, created a situation that drove early transmitters of the Qur'an to introduce a group of interrelated deletions, additions, and emendations into certain passages of the text.

Preface

PART I: FATHERS AND SONS
1. The Foundation Narratives of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
2. Adoption in the Near East: From Antiquity to the Rise of Islam
3. The Abolition of Adoption in Early Islam

PART II: FROM SACRED LEGEND TO SACRED HISTORY
4. The Repudiation of the Beloved of the Messenger of God
5. The Battle of Mu'ta
6. The Martyrdom of the Beloved of the Messenger of God
7. Pretexts and Intertexts

PART III: TEXT AND INTERPRETATION
8. Paleography and Codicology: Bibliothèque Nationale de France 328a
9. Kalala in Early Islamic Tradition
10. Conclusion

Appendices
1: The Opening lines of Q. 4:12b and 4:176 in English Translations of the Qur'an
2: Deathbed Scenes and Inheritance Disputes: A Literary Approach
3: Inheritance Law: From the Ancient Near East to Early Islam

Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments