The Succession to Muhammad

The Author

Professor Wilfred Madelung was born on December 26, 1930 in Stuttgart, Germany. He went to Cairo University since passing elementary school and high school and in 1953 he graduated from the field of the Islamic history and literature. Then he continued his education in his country. Finally in 1957 he got doctoral degree from the Hamburg University in Islamic Studies. Madelung completed his doctoral treatise under the supervision of famous German Islamologists. He became Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Chicago in 1969. Professor Madelung is at present Senior Research Fellow with The Institute of Ismaili Studies. Up until his retirement, Wilfred Madelung held the prestigious academic position of Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford from 1978 to 1998. He waited until his retirement to release this tour de force to concentrate his years of scholarship in this, his magnum opus. Indeed, this is a personal work for he devotes this to his mother, who taught him to read history.

Main Theme

This is a comprehensive study of early Islamic history. Wilferd Madelung systematically analyses the conflict which developed after Muhammad's death for the leadership of the nascent Muslim community. He pursues the history of this conflict through the reign of the four 'Rightly Guided' caliphs to its climax in the first inter-Muslim war. The outcome of the war, which marked the demise of the reign of the Early Companions, resulted in the lasting schism between Sunnite and Shi'ite Islam. Contrary to recent scholarly trends, the author brings out Ali's early claim to legitimate succession, which gained support from the Shi'a, and offers a convincing reinterpretation of early Islamic history. This book has made a profound contribution to the debate over succession.

Quotes

In memory of my mother...who opened my eyes to history as it really is..

Narrative history carries its own momentum and dictates its appropriate ways of presentation. Persons, their motivation, action and reaction move to the foreground and confine the interpretation of ideas and documentary texts.

There is thus prima facie good reason to suspect that the common view of western scholars of Islam about the succession to Muhammad may not be entirely sound and to propose a fresh look at the sources for a proper reassessment.

The starting point for establishing what Muhammad may have thought in general about his succession and what his contemporary followers could have seen as basic guidelines after his death must certainly be a study of the Qur'an.

Reception

The The Journal of the American Oriental Society applauded Madelung's mastery of the subject but was critical of his reliance on ancient sources and neglect of modern scholarship, stating "... author falls outside the emerging consensus in the field which maintains a moderately skeptical attitude toward the Arabic materials". It further comments although Madelung did take an "optimistic view of the sources" and "Crone's and Hinds' ideas about the nature of caliphal authority are dismissed in one sentence", it still "offers a chance to see the Shi'ite case imaginatively made by a master scholar in complete control of the sources." Iranian Studies also praised the work. Hugh Kennedy writing in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society was more tepid, stating that "When Mu'awiya finally entered Kufa, Madelung tersely observes, 'The brute was celebrating victory' ... it is not clear that such openly partisan comment is appropriate in a work of historical research." Ingrid Mattson writing for Journal of Religion observes "It is truly puzzling then that in his new book, Madelung presents what seems to be an almost partisan argument about the position of Ali". It has been awarded the Best Book of the Year prize by the Islamic Republic of Iran for the year 1997.