Newby has provided us with a rich compilation of early Islamic material that is of interest both to Islamicists and to students of religion interested in hagiography, prophetology, and the development of sacred tradition. . . . This is a doubly laudable work: first, because of its reconstruction from later sources of an otherwise 'lost' eighth-century c.e. text, the first ... Read morehalf of Sîrat Rasûl Allâh of Ibn Ishâq (d. 767); and, second, because of its rendering of the extant fragments as a continuous text presented in reliable, yet idiomatic and accessible English translation." ― History of Religions "The book's importance is enormous. No one else has worked through this opaque and largely unused material to the extent that the author has done in the present volume. . . . No one who is concerned with formative literary elements in the classical period of Islam will be able to ignore this book." ― Bruce Lawrence, Duke University Show Less