The Prophet's biography in European scholarship
السيرة النبوية في كتابات المستشرقين
Arslan reviews Émile Dermenghem's Life of Muhammad, a French study. He discusses the book's treatment of the first revelation, of hadith and its transmission, of the crucifixion and how Islam and Christianity differ on Jesus, and of the compilation of the Qur'an. He also reports a European historian's classification of Arab biographers by reliability. He finds Dermenghem fair but disagrees with him on several points. The entry describes Arslan's reading of another author, not a judgement on the Prophet ﷺ's life.
At a glance
- Era
- The Prophetic Era
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
Overview
In the chapter "The Prophetic biography and the book The Life of Muhammad", Shakib Arslan offers a reading of the book by Emile Dermenghem, a French scholar, on the life of the Prophet. This is a description of the author's reading of another book, not a judgement on the Prophet's biography. 1
Points covered
The presentation covers the beginning of revelation, the Prophet's hadith and his narration of it, the question of the crucifixion of Christ and the comparison of the two beliefs about Jesus, and the collection of the Qur'an. 1
He quotes a European historian's classification of the biographers according to the degree of trust in them. Arslan holds that the author of the book is fair, though he disagrees with him on details. 1
A further source is needed: Dermenghem's book itself, and the identification of the European historian who made the classification.
Sources
- Stoddard, Hadir al-ʿalam al-islami (Arabic translation with Arslan's commentary)
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “The Prophet's biography in European scholarship”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/prophet-biography-in-european-scholarship/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-17.