There is an infamous story about the great Arab conquests and the destruction of books, which is popularly cited by Islamophobes to show that Muslims are intolerant zealots or philistines who hate science, etc. The story goes that, when the Arab armies conquered Persia, they found libraries of Persian books. The Arab commander, Saʿd b. … [Read more…]
In the course of my investigation of a certain corpus of exegetical hadiths, I happened to come across the following report in the Tafsīr of al-Ṭabarī: Yaʿqūb b. ʾIbrāhīm related to me—he said: “Ibn ʿUlayyah related to us—he said: “Rajāʾ b. ʾabī Salamah related to us—he said: “ʿUbādah b. Nusayy, reported to us—he said: “Our … [Read more…]
Anyone who spends time researching and discussing Islamic history whilst operating in online spaces will inevitably encounter Islamophobes: those who demonise Islam and harbour a seething hatred and resentment towards Muslims, spewing an endless torrent of ahistorical, bigoted, and xenophobic drivel. Sometimes these ideas and attitudes are expressed politely or in a mild tone (especially … [Read more…]