Analysis and Criticism of the Hypothesis of the Samarian Influence on Islam

In the last century, by offering the theory of "Hagarism", Patricia Crone and Michael Cook, introduced a new view on Islam which is based on radical skepticism about the Islamic sources and on vast usage of non-Islamic sources. They offered new claims that one is the influence of Samarians on the appearance and development of Islam. They considered some of the evident affinities between Islamic concepts and the terms used in the Jewish Samarian sect as an evidence of the Islamic impressionability of this sect and claimed that one must find some roots of Islam in the Samarian sect. The selection of the word "Islam" as a name for the new faith, a sacred relation between Haram and mountain, the event of changing the Keblah (prayer direction) and the structural similarity between Imamah in Shiism and kehanah in Samarian are among the most important documentations in this hypothesis. In this research we will analyze and criticize the claim of Hagarism on the basis of Islamic impressionability of the Samarian.