The Rise of Islam — From Muhammad to the Unification of Arabia

How did Islam begin—and how did a religious movement emerging in western Arabia transform the Arabian Peninsula within a single generation? This documentary traces the rise of Islam from the world of Arabia before Muhammad through the first revelations, the opposition in Mecca, the Hijra to Medina, the battles that threatened the early Muslim community, the return to Mecca, the political transformation of Arabia, and the succession crisis following Muhammad's death in 632 CE. But this is not simply a story of battles and conquest. To understand how Islam emerged, we first have to reconstruct the world in which it appeared: tribal alliances, Arabian sanctuaries, trade and pilgrimage networks, Jewish and Christian communities, and the great Roman and Sasanian empires surrounding Arabia. We then follow Muhammad's movement from a small circle of believers to a community capable of surviving persecution, migration and war—and eventually establishing authority across much of Arabia. Throughout the documentary, Islamic tradition is considered alongside the evidence available to historians: the Qur'an, early manuscripts, inscriptions, archaeology, later Muslim historical traditions, and contemporary or near-contemporary sources from outside the Muslim community. This documentary draws on the Qur’an, early Islamic historical traditions, and modern scholarship on Muhammad, Late Antique Arabia, the Qur’an, and the emergence of the early Islamic community. The Qur’an — primary source for the religious message and earliest Muslim community. Ibn Ishaq / Ibn Hisham — The Life of Muhammad (Sirat Rasul Allah) — foundational later Islamic biographical tradition concerning Muhammad. al-Tabari — The History of al-Tabari — major collection of early Islamic historical traditions. Fred M. Donner — Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam — reconstruction of the early community and its development within the religious environment of Late Antiquity. Sean W. Anthony — Muhammad and the Empires of Faith: The Making of the Prophet of Islam — especially useful for evaluating the sources for Muhammad's life and comparing Muslim and non-Muslim evidence. University of California Press Nicolai Sinai — The Qur'an: A Historical-Critical Introduction — historical-critical study of the Qur’an, its chronology, literary development and Late Antique religious context. Edinburgh University Press Robert G. Hoyland — Seeing Islam as Others Saw It — important collection and analysis of non-Muslim evidence for the emergence of Islam. Robert G. Hoyland — In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire — useful particularly for the transition from Muhammad's Arabia to the early conquests. Hugh Kennedy — The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates — broad political history of the early Islamic world. The New Cambridge History of Islam, Vol. 1 — The Formation of the Islamic World, Sixth to Eleventh Centuries — broader scholarly reference for the Late Antique and early Islamic historical setting. Note: Accounts of Muhammad's life survive primarily through Islamic literary traditions written down after the events they describe. Where appropriate, the documentary distinguishes between later tradition, the Qur’anic evidence, external sources, archaeology and conclusions that can be established with greater or lesser historical confidence. Sean Anthony's work is particularly relevant to this methodological problem because it explicitly examines Muslim and non-Muslim sources together and the development of the early biographical tradition.