A Comparative Study of the Representation of Sīratu Rasūli l-Lāh (PBUH) and the History of Islam in Hagarism and Faces of Muhammad

Patricia Crone and John V. Tolan represent two directions in Islamic studies, extremism and traditionalism. Extremism revolved around negating the credibility of the resources of Islamic history and endeavoring to reshape and rewrite Sīratu Rasūli l-Lāh (PBUH) and the accurate history of Islam by making reference to non-Islamic historical resources. On the other hand, The fundamentals of their rival stream viz traditionalism include trusting and believing in the credibility of the resources of Islamic history, assigning historical centrality for the accounts across the history of Islam. From the 1970s onward, the Revisionist school of Islamic studies replaced the extremist campaign and tried to extend the foundations of extremism that Patricia Crone’s Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World(Written in collaboration with Michael Cook), is one of the results of this skepticism and the extremism of the revisionists. On the other hand, as a way of responding to the efforts and extremist actions of the revisionists, traditionalists reacted scientifically, and John Tolan’s Faces of Muhammad: Western Perceptions of the Prophet of Islam from the Middle Ages to Today, is one of the most remarkable instances. The present study, which was carried out using a descriptive-analytical methodology by making reference to library resources, aimed to compare the representation and introduction of Sīratu Rasūli l-Lāh (PBUH) and the history of Islam in the views of Patricia Crone and John Tolan according to Hagarism and Faces of Muhammad. The main question of the study revolved around the similarities and differences between the two books in terms of representation. The study hypothesized that Hagarism reflected the Revisionist ’ skeptical foundations and thoughts, while faces of Muhammad – despite implicitly approving some of the Revisionist ’ ideas – adopted a traditional approach and opposed the opinions propagated by reformists