Conversion to Islam: Competing Themes in Early Islamic Historiography by Ayman S. Ibrahim

Abstract

Reviewed by: Conversion to Islam: Competing Themes in Early Islamic Historiography by Ayman S. Ibrahim Mohammad H. Faghfoory Ayman S. Ibrahim, Conversion to Islam: Competing Themes in Early Islamic Historiography Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021, Table of Contents viii–ix, acknowledgments xi, Note on transliteration xiii, Conversion topoi xv, Muslim Historians under the Abbasids xvii, Glossary xix+246 pages, Primary Sources Authors 247-253, Works Cited and Index 265–291. In this thought provoking, meticulously researched, and clearly written book, Ayman Ibrahim demonstrates the interplay between history and historiography. He analyzes different aspects of conversions during the first three centuries of Islam, as represented in historiographical accounts. As such, the book contains research on conversions, not necessarily as they occurred but how Muslim historians understood and described the process of conversions. Naturally, conversion meant different thing to different people and social groups. In a long introduction, Ibrahim describes the framework of his approach where he also gives a detailed analysis of previous studies on conversion. He challenges the views of scholars who underestimate the significance of historiographical sources, and instead relied on non-historiographical sources such as biographical dictionaries, geographies, belle letters, and legal texts or addressed a specific region. The fact is that those earlier studies are unique in their own ways. If there is an issue with their approach it is not because those engaged used non-historiographical or “wrong sources” as Richard Bulliet wrote, but in their treatment of the vast world of Islam as a monolithic and homogenous region, rather than a world comprised of diverse peoples, cultures, languages, historical experiences, and ethnic or linguistic identities. To complement those studies, Ibrahim states that his book “is the first scholarly inquiry to trace, identify, and analyze conversion themes in Islamic historiography during the first three centuries of Islam.” Ibrahim regards Islamic historiography in general and that of conversions in particular as the product of the mind of the historians whose ability to record the events of their time was subject to political, religious, and social considerations. Therefore, rather than recording the events as they unfolded, historiography became “a tool devised to form the historical memory of the [End Page 88] faithful rather than as a precise sketch of the past.” As a result, narrating conversions reflects more than simply change of religion by some, but “the interaction between the historian’s agenda and the vibrant political and sectarian contexts at the time of writing.”1 In this feature lies the weakness as well as the strength of the historiographical narratives of conversion. There are some important questions to ask regarding early conversions. Who were the earliest converts to Islam and why did they convert to this new religion? What were the motivations of different people to convert? What was the role of social, political, and economic factors in conversions? How different and/or similar were conversions of people in different geographical regions? What part faith in Islamic doctrine that inspired a desire for piety among people played in the process of conversions? Ibrahim provides answers to these questions by classifying the converts into six groups in accordance with the time and circumstances of their conversion, their motivations, and the degree of sincerity or lack thereof among converts. The groups include the earliest coverts (awa’il), notables and chiefs (wujaha), those who performed a good deed after embracing Islam (hausn islam), those who accepted Islam after they were defeated in 8/629 when the Prophet conquered Mecca (tulaqa), and finally those who negotiated conversion in return for financial incentives from the Prophet (mu’allafa qulubuhum), and the People of the Book.2 These narratives enabled the community to construct a value system and develop criteria to judge the quality of the faith of the converts. Hence, as Ibrahim states, the new converts’ faith was assessed by virtue of their intentions, sincerity, deeds, material expectations, and political compromise.3 These themes can be identified in all phases of the period under investigation during the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates even though the emphasis on each theme shifted from one theme to another at each phase. It is safe to assume that during the time of the Prophet and the period...