The Rev Professor W. Montgomery WattI read those two books many years ago and found them very helpful. Watt was born here in Fife and taught at the University of Edinburgh until his retirement in 1979. I had no idea he was still alive so recently. Requiescat in pace.
March 14, 1909 - October 24, 2006 (Times of London)
Eminent scholar who studied the origins of Islam
Professor W. Montgomery Watt was the foremost British scholar of his time in investigating the origins of Islam, studying it as a religious phenomenon, and examining how the vast and complex edifice of early Islamic philosophy and theology came into being.
[...]
Watt, as a priest of the Scottish Episcopal Church, held fast to his Christian faith but viewed Muhammad as a genuine, inspired prophet, whose revelations from God, gathered in the Koran, were divine injunctions which inspired Muhammad’s followers and enabled them to build up a vast edifice of faith which purely material considerations, those of empire and plunder, could never have achieved.
His Muhammad at Mecca (1953) and Muhammad at Medina (1956) were based on a radical critique of the historical sources from early Islamic times and of the body of Islamic tradition, the reported sayings and doings of the Prophet and his early followers that speedily took shape after Muhammad’s death in 632, since he regarded the Koran itself as too allusive and fragmentary to form the basis for a fully fleshed-out historical account.
In these two books Watt examined the political and social setting for the unfolding of Muhammad’s career as the inspired channel for divine revelation; he showed him as an organiser and war leader of genius, who nurtured the Muslim community so that, after his death, the new faith would dominate the Near East within three decades.
Watt’s work here has stood the test of time, for the last half-century has seen no comparable fresh work on Muhammad's career. ...
(Via the Agade list.)
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