The Death of a Prophet. Stephen J. Shoemaker
Chronicle. There is hardly any reason to suspect that the redactor of the latter document was responsible for this favorable depiction of Islam, particularly in view of the comparative data afforded by the Hispanic Chronicle. In fact, so positive is the Spanish Eastern Source’s view of Islam that it is tempting to suspect that somehow there are Islamic sources lying just behind it. Perhaps some now lost early Islamic (Umayyad?) historical traditions also preserved a primitive tradition of Muhammad’s leadership during the Palestinian campaign, such as we find attested in the non-Islamic sources. The Letter of ʿUmar discussed below certainly suggests this possibility. Furthermore, as noted above, the remarkably positive representation of Islam and its early leaders in the Spanish Eastern Source probably reflects an expectation of scrutiny by Islamic readers. In light of this, it seems rather unlikely that its author would either deliberately misrepresent Muhammad as the leader of the Palestinian conquests or would include information widely regarded as false by the Islamic authorities. This source in fact seems to be very close to the center of Umayyad power, and its use by these two early medieval Spanish chroniclers demonstrates not only that the tradition of Muhammad’s leadership during the campaign in Palestine remained current in Christian historical writing over a century after the events themselves but also that this tradition had spread even to the West in early Islamic Spain.
The Syriac Common Source: The Chronicle of Theophilus of Edessa (ca. 750 CE)
The Syriac Common Source is a now lost medieval chronicle that we have already mentioned briefly in discussions of the Doctrina Iacobi and the Spanish Eastern Source. The first traces of this vanished chronicle began to emerge in the later nineteenth century, when it was discovered that the Greek chronicle of Theophanes (written 814 CE) and the Syriac chronicle of Michael the Syrian (written 1195 CE) had used a common source in compiling their notices for the seventh century and much of the eighth, the so-called Eastern Source, or Syriac Common Source, as we have determined to call it. In Michael’s case, it was further known that he had used this lost source at second hand, as it had been mediated to him through yet another lost chronicle, the Chronicle of Dionysius of Tellmahre (d. 845), which Michael implies was the only substantial source available to him for the seventh and eighth centuries.90 The subsequent publication of the Christian Arabic chronicle of Agapius (written ca. 940) and the anonymous Syriac Chronicle of 1234 have added further clarity to the picture. Agapius depends almost entirely on the lost Syriac Common Source for his description of events during the years 630–754, providing now a third independent witness to this missing source.91 The Chronicle of 1234, in contrast, presents a second source that has drawn its seventh- and eighth-century material almost exclusively from Dionysius of Tellmahre’s lost chronicle, preserving its contents in what many think is a less heavily edited version than is found in Michael’s chronicle. Since Dionysius’s chronicle is believed to have best preserved the Syriac Common Source, this anonymous thirteenth-century chronicle is an invaluable resource for reconstructing the contents of this now lost text.92
All of this makes determining the contents of the Syriac Common Source a rather complex and at the same time fairly straightforward endeavor. Since it is generally assumed that the Chronicle of 1234 has most faithfully preserved the Syriac Common Source, via Dionysius of Tellmahre’s vanished chronicle, one begins by looking at this chronicle, but at each point, one must also compare the data from Theophanes, Agapius, and Michael. Only after evaluating the various testimonies from all of these sources both with one another and with the tendencies of each individual chronicle can one come to a judgment as to what the Syriac Common Source most likely reported. When several sources converge very closely, we can be quite certain that this material has been faithfully preserved from the Syriac Common Source. By this means, an outline of this lost chronicle can be restored, as evidenced in Hoyland’s very helpful summary of its contents.93 Moreover, we now know the author of this important history of the seventh and eighth centuries to have been Theophilus of Edessa, an eighth-century Maronite scholar who served as court astrologer to the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Mahdi.94 Theophilus is said to have written several works on astrology, and his knowledge of Greek was such that he translated the Iliad and perhaps the Odyssey into Syriac, but all of these works are now lost, except for a few surviving fragments and excerpts. Most importantly for the present purposes, however, Theophilus also composed a chronicle, which, as Conrad has convincingly demonstrated, is almost certainly to be identified with the lost Syriac Common Source.95
Unfortunately, Theophilus of Edessa’s account of Muhammad’s life and the rise of Islam is somewhat difficult to determine, since the various witnesses to his Chronicle themselves preserve different descriptions of these events. Hoyland nicely summarizes the situation as follows: “Theophanes almost totally ignores Theophilus for his notice on Muhammad, drawing instead, indirectly, on Jewish and Muslim sources. Agapius abridges Theophilus, as he himself acknowledges, and supplements him with material from the Muslim tradition. That leaves Dionysius, who seems to me to best preserve Theophilus’ entry.”96 Luckily, Dionysius’s account of the rise of Islam is well preserved in both Michael the Syrian’s Chronicle and the Chronicle of 1234: the two are either identical or very close in wording at this point. Michael’s text does contain a few passages not found in the Chronicle of 1234, many of which are polemical in nature, but these are more likely to have been added by Michael than deleted by the latter.97 Thus we may with some confidence regard the following passage from the Chronicle of 1234 as representing something very close what once stood in Dionysius’s Chronicle, and in turn as reflecting more or less what Dionysius likely found in Theophilus’s now lost mid-eighth-century Chronicle.
Therefore this Muhammad, while in the measure and stature of youth, began to go up and come down from his city Yathrib to Palestine for the business of buying and selling. And while he was engaged in this region, he encountered the belief in one God, and it was pleasing to his eyes. And when he went back down to the people of his tribe, he set this belief before them, and when he persuaded a few, they followed him. And at the same time he would also extol for them the excellence of the land of Palestine, saying that “Because of belief in the one God, such a good and fertile land has been given to them.” And he would add, “If you will listen to me, God will also give you a fine land flowing with milk and honey.” And when he wanted to prove his word, he led a band of those who were obedient to him, and he began to go up and plunder the land of Palestine, taking captives and pillaging. And he returned, laden [with booty] and unharmed, and he did not fall short of his promise to them.
Since the love of possessions drives such behavior to become a habit, they began continually going out and coming back for plunder. And when those who were not yet following him saw those who had submitted to him becoming wealthy with an abundance of riches, they were drawn to his service without compulsion. And when, after these [raids], the men following him became numerous and were a great force, he no longer [went forth but] allowed98 them to raid while he sat in honor in Yathrib, his city. And once they had been sent out, it was not enough for them to remain only in Palestine, but they were going much further afield, killing openly, taking captives, laying waste, and pillaging. And even this was not enough for them, but they forced them to pay tribute and enslaved them. Thus they gradually grew strong and spread abroad, and they grew so powerful that they subjugated almost all the land of the Romans and the kingdom of the Persians under their authority.99
The indication that the initial Islamic attacks on Palestine began during Muhammad’s lifetime and under his leadership is quite clear here, and comparison with Michael’s Chronicle confirms that Dionysius must have written something very similar in his early ninth-century Chronicle. Since Dionysius is believed to best preserve Theophilus’s lost chronicle, it is further likely that this account bears a strong resemblance to Theophilus’s description of the rise of Islam. Nevertheless, Theophanes and Agapius are not able to confirm the presence of this report in Theophilus’s Chronicle, since they have both utilized other sources in their descriptions of the rise of Islam.100 Fortunately, another source is available to verify that Theophilus’s Chronicle almost certainly contained a passage similar to the one above and, more importantly, that it described Muhammad’s leadership