Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam

Description

"Patricia Crone reassesses one of the most widely accepted dogmas in contemporary accounts of the beginnings of Islam, the supposition that Mecca was a trading center thriving on the export of aromatic spices to the Mediterranean. Pointing out that the conventional opinion is based on classical accounts of the trade between south Arabia and the Mediterranean some 600 years earlier than the age of Muhammad, Dr. Crone argues that the land route described in these records was short-lived and that the Muslim sources make no mention of such goods. In addition to changing our view of the role of trade, the author reexamines the evidence for the religious status of pre-Islamic Mecca and seeks to elucidate the nature of the sources on which we should reconstruct our picture of the birth of the new religion in Arabia."

First Sentence

Every first-year student knows that Mecca at the time of the Prophet was the centre of a far-flung trading empire, which plays a role of some importance in all orthodox accounts of the rise of Islam.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Meccan Trade and the Rise of IslamHardcoverGorgias Press LLC2004-07-20
• Meccan trade and the rise of IslamPrinceton University Press1986-01-01
• Meccan trade and the rise of IslamBasil Blackwell1987-01-01
• Meccan trade and the rise of IslamPrinceton University Press1987-01-01