Early Development of Mohammedanism

Adapted from a series of lectures delivered at the University of London, this is a strikingly clear-headed and articulate discussion of one of the great faiths of the world from a historical and sociological perspective. Discover — the Koran as the basis of Islam, the Koran as legal code, the status cults in the Islamic faith, the development of Islamic ethics, asceticism and pantheism in Islam, Islamic philosophy, and more. David S. Margoliouth (1858-1940) was Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford from 1889 to 1937. Many of his works on the history of Islam became the standard treatises in English, including Mohammed and the Rise of Islam (1905), The Early Development of Mohammedanism (1914), and The Relations between Arabs and Israelites Prior to the Rise of Islam (1924). He was described as brilliant editor and translator of Arabic works, as seen in The Letters of Abu’l-’Ala of Ma’arrat al-Nu’man (1898), Yaqut’s Dictionary of Learned Men, 6 volumes, and the chronicle of Miskawayh, prepared in collaboration with H. F. Amedroz under the title The Eclipse of the ‘Abbasid Caliphate, 7 volumes. Some of David Samuel Margoliouth’s studies are included in The Origins of The Koran: Classic Essays on Islam’s Holy Book edited by Ibn Warraq. Poet Laureate Ahmed Shawqi dedicated his famous poem, The Nile, to Margoliouth.