Article
Licensed
Unlicensed
Requires Authentication
Muḥammad, the Keys to Paradise, and the Doctrina Iacobi: A Late Antique Puzzle
-
Sean W. Anthony
Published/Copyright:
November 1, 2014
Abstract: Abstract: One the earliest non-Islamic testimonies to the existence of the Prophet Muḥammad can be found within the Byzantine apologetic tract known as the Doctrina Iacobi nuper baptizati. Frequently dated by modern historians to as early as July 634 CE, the tract curiously asserts that the prophet who had appeared “among the Saracens” claimed to possess “the keys to paradise.” This essay investigates this claim and the prevalence of the “keys to paradise” motif in late-antique Christian literature and the early Islamic tradition to provide a new evaluation of the text’s place in and importance to the historiography of Islamic origins.
: Muḥammad; keys to paradise; Byzantium; Carthage; Palestine; Jews; Saracens; baptism; interreligious polemic
Published Online: 2014-11-1
Published in Print: 2014-11-1
© De Gruyter 2014
You are currently not able to access this content.
You are currently not able to access this content.
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Muḥammad, the Keys to Paradise, and the Doctrina Iacobi: A Late Antique Puzzle
- Le plus ancien sauf-conduit arabe
- Medieval Biographical Literature and the Companions of Muḥammad
- The Role of al-Madāʾinī’s Students in the Transmission of His Material
- Lāwī b. Ismāʿīl b. Rabīʿ b. Sulaymān: An Unnoticed Jewish Convert to Islam in Fifth/Eleventh Century Al-Andalus
- Aus dem Kitāb Aḥkām al-Qurʿān des Mālikiten Ibn Ḫawāz Mandād
- The Eight Paradises (the Hasht bihisht) and the Question of the Existence of its Autographs
- Reviews
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Muḥammad, the Keys to Paradise, and the Doctrina Iacobi: A Late Antique Puzzle
- Le plus ancien sauf-conduit arabe
- Medieval Biographical Literature and the Companions of Muḥammad
- The Role of al-Madāʾinī’s Students in the Transmission of His Material
- Lāwī b. Ismāʿīl b. Rabīʿ b. Sulaymān: An Unnoticed Jewish Convert to Islam in Fifth/Eleventh Century Al-Andalus
- Aus dem Kitāb Aḥkām al-Qurʿān des Mālikiten Ibn Ḫawāz Mandād
- The Eight Paradises (the Hasht bihisht) and the Question of the Existence of its Autographs
- Reviews
