What's New and Updated?

Updates for the years 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

29th March 2008

We have added An Islamic Inscription From The Byzantine Fortress Of Rujm Ṣfār, First Century Of Hijra. This inscription was found on the Byzantine fortress of Rujm Ṣfār. It expresses the Muslim belief in the unity of God and that He has not partners.

This is present in the section The Arabic & Islamic Inscriptions.

22nd March 2008

Have you ever wondered what is the earliest dated non-scriptural Muslim or non-Muslim text mentioning Prophet Muhammad? The article Dated Texts Mentioning Prophet Muḥammad From 1-100 AH / 622-719 CE aims to answer this question. You will be surprised to know the answer! This corpus is constructed from dated non-Muslim sources as well as Muslim sources that include our collection of the Islamic inscriptions, Arabic papyri and Islamic coins.

Also updated is the Inscription On The Dam Built By Caliph Mu‘āwiya, 58 AH / 678 CE with a better picture showing the inscription clearly.

These are present in the section The Arabic & Islamic Inscriptions.

30th January 2008

We add a pre-Islamic Arabic inscription, i.e., An Arabic Funerary Text In A Church In Nebo (Jordan) Dated To Mid-Sixth Century CE. The Arabic inscription is written on a grave inside a church.

Also updated is the Harran Inscription: A Pre-Islamic Arabic Inscription From 568 CE with new material and image.

We revisit the The Earliest Dated Kufic Inscription From Qā‘ al-Mu‘tadil, Near Al-Hijr (Saudi Arabia), 24 AH / 644 CE, but this time to study the inscription written next to it. Both the inscriptions were written by the same person.

These are present in the section The Arabic & Islamic Inscriptions.

27th January 2008

Addition of an Anonymous Arab-Sassanian Fals From Dārābjird, 67 AH / 686-87 CE. Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust with Pahlavi afzut before bust. Obverse margin: bism Allāh ("In the name of God") in the second quadrant of obverse margin. Reverse field: Fire altar between mint (Dārābjird) and date, in margin afzut (Pahlavi) and baraka ("blessing").

This is added in the section The Islamic Coins.

Also added is a lecture A Brief History Of Ḥadīth Collection And Criticism by Dr. Jonathan Brown, a young, eloquent western ḥadīth scholar from University of Washington where he works as an Assistant Professor. In this lecture, he briefly discusses the history of ḥadīth collection, its criticism and the evolution of western ḥadīth scholarship from Goldziher, Schacht, Juynboll to Motzki. A lot of misconceptions about ḥadīth are clarified in this lecture.

This is added in the section Issues Concerning Ḥadīth.

20th January 2008

Timothy Dunkin, an ardent supporter of Robert Morey and his "scholarship", has attempted to prove that Allah was simply another name for Hubal, who in turn was Baʿal. Seeing parallels with Baʿal deities worshipped in the ancient Near East, the Christian polemicist claimed the later Muslims falsified their literary records in order to conceal the alleged pagan origin and nature of Allah. As to who is involved in falsifying the historical records and making up spurious arguments is discussed in detail in the article Is Hubal The Same As Allah?

This article is in the section Refutation Of The Borrowing Theories Of The Qur'an.