The Prophet of Islam: His Life, His Work, by Muhammad Hamidullah, Reread by Mustapha Tougui, 8th Expanded Edition

Author's note: Muhammad Hamidullah

Despite the great wealth of French literature, it seems to me that it still lacks an overall study of the Sîrah or the life and work of the Prophet of Islam, messenger of one of the main religions of the world. This is the subject of this work, which attempts to study its multiple aspects. In the hundreds of thousands of books or articles published in all languages on the Sîrah, the administrative institutions and organizations established in the interest of the community seem to have singularly escaped the attention of researchers until now. Pioneering work will therefore be attempted in this area.

Moreover, in the strictly chronological study that all the biographers have made up to now of this personality struggling on many fronts at the same time, we do not really grasp the evolution of the relations with specific communities. Here we will study the facts, grouping them according to subjects, such as Mecca, Byzantium, Iran, the Jews, etc. At the cost of a few repetitions, the description thus seems to become more coherent and more lively. Another reason prompted the author, a former student at the Sorbonne, to undertake this work: he has already enjoyed the hospitality of France for ten years. With his pen, the only property remaining to him in the world, he can offer nothing better to his welcoming guests than the result of more than thirty years of consecutive studies in this field, studies made in the original sources as well as the works of other researchers, written in different languages.

In conclusion, I sincerely thank the friends who have helped me to revise the style of this work, but I fear that there are always a few turns of foreign elements, for which I seek the indulgence of my readers.

Paris/ Istanbul, 1959 MH