"Do Prophets Come with a Sword?" Conquest, Empire, and Historical Narrative in the Early Islamic World

IN THE NINTH CENTURY OF THE COMMON ERA, a Christian apologist living and writing under Muslim rule in Iraq repeated a very old critique of Islam. Amma r al-Bas ri wrote that Islam, like the religion of the Banu Isra i l (roughly “the Sons of Israel”), had been spread by the sword, whereas Christianity forbade the use of the sword as a means of promulgating the faith.1 However much we may doubt the assertion that late ancient and early medieval Christians scrupulously abstained from the use of the sword in spreading their religion, the Christian apologist clearly meant to suggest that Islam’s history of faith-driven conquest had made moot any claims that Muslims may have advanced concerning the status of their religion as the one true religion of God upon the Earth.2 In tandem with its theological implications, this Christian author’s critique of Islam’s use of the sword also seems to have taken aim at the early Muslim community or umma’s organizing historical narratives about the origins of the Islamic community itself. For Muslims of the era, the events of the conquest period were recalled as a series of monumental episodes that located contemporary Islam and its adherents within an overarching narrative of prophecy, revelation, and salvation.3 Although Amma r al-Bas ri was a Christian intellectual, he was intimately acquainted