This volume deals with the methodological and theoretical issues of the study of Islamic origins. Each of the twelve articles examines a different aspect of Islamic origins: early Islamic history including the life of the Prophet, the Sunna and h adith, tafsir and the Qur'an, and the rise of Islamic law. Both sceptical (or revisionist) scholars and sanguine (or traditionalist) scholars examine and employ the various contemporary theories on the development of Islam in the first 3 centuries A.H. In so doing, they seek to exemplify the sources and methodologies used to support these theories and to discuss their relative merits.