Prophetology Contested in Christian-Muslim Polemics

Hoyland’s account of Doctrina Jacobi draws attention in particular the the way in which early Christian (and Jewish?) apologists criticized Islam via its account of prophethood.  Doctrina Jacobi V.16 encapsulates this.  After describing the death of a candidatus at the hands of muslims, the character Justus relates his brother’s comments about Muhammad: “He is false for the prophets do not come arms with a sword.”  Several sentences later, the same theme is repeated: “there was no truth to be found in the so-called prophet, only the shedding of men’s blood.” This seems to suggest a somewhat developed theology of prophethood in Christian circles, which demanded that prophets be men of peace.  Precisely the political violence surround the Islamic expansion, therefore, undermines Muhammad’s claim to the status of a prophet like Jesus or the prophets of the Hebrew Bible.

Particularly in light of earlier readings from this semester (e.g. Wansbrough), which asserted that the Qur’an emerged as a dramatization of the Judeo-Christian theology of prophethood, this line of argument raises several questions.  First, what were the operative theologies of prophetic identity in Jewish and Christian circles at the time of the Islamic expansion? Did these theologies develop in response to the growth of Islam? Second, to what extent does “prophethood” remain a contested theological category in the Christian and Jewish responses to Islam?  And finally, does this line of argumentation compel us to ask new questions of an analysis like Wansbrough’s, or change how we evaluate it?