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It has been the prevalent idea among orientalists that Islamic historical
and religious literature appeared from the early-third century A.H.
onwards and reflected the political and religious divisions in the Islamic
community. In this book, Motzki goes against this idea and suggests that
that early Islamic literature can be dated to the end of the first and the beginning
of second centuries A.H. Motzki develops this thesis by studying
Ibn ‘Abbas’ traditions that have been considered suspect by the Western
researchers for he lived with the Prophet Muhammad for a limited time.
He attempts to reconstruct the source of Ibn ‘Abbas and underlines the
role of the narrator (rawi) named Muhammad b. Abi Muhammad.