Seeing Islam as Others Saw It
Seeing Islam As Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam (Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam) is a book by scholar of the Middle East Robert G. Hoyland.
The book contains an extensive collection of Greek, Syrian, Coptic, Armenian Latin, Jewish, Persian, and Chinese primary sources written between 620 and 780 AD in the middle east which provides a survey of eye witness accounts of historical events during the formative period of Islam
The book presents the evidentiary text of over 120 seventh century manuscripts, some of which, such as the Doctrina Jacobi and The Maronite Chronicles are at variance with traditional Islamic accounts of the origins of Islam, for example Thomas the Presbyter describes events taking place two years after the traditional date for the death of Muhammad:
- In the year 945, indiction 7, on Friday 7 February (634) at the ninth hour, there was a battle between the Romans and the Arabs of Muhammad (tayyaye d-Mhmt) in Palestine twelve miles east of Gaza. The Romans fled, leaving behind the patrician bryrdn, whom the Arabs killed. Some 4000 poor villagers of Palestine were killed there, Christians, Jews and Samaritans. The Arabs ravaged the whole region.