Winning the Hearts & Souls

Ibn Kathir’s al-Bidayah wa’l-Nihayah is an encyclopedic work of universal history with close reference to the formative period of Islam. It accordingly deserves wide circulation, especially in the West. In theory, therefore, this ambitious project of Darussalam, a leading publishing house in Saudi Arabia, is commendable. However, the project has been very poorly put into practice. Even the minimal norms of editorial research, scholarly and linguistic competence are not met. Just to begin with, its main title, Winning the Hearts and Souls, provides no clue as to the contents of the work. The subtitle, Expeditions and Delegations in the Lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), is better but nonetheless misleading. The work deals literally with hundreds of events, issues and topics which are not even remotely captured by the title and subtitle. It is a pity that a chronological historical narrative of Sirah has been unimaginatively limited only to the delegations in the Prophet’s day. The work goes into all the major and minor events, ranging from the conquest of Makkah, the battle of Hawazin, the Tabuk expedition, the Prophet’s Farewell Pilgrimage, including the type of Hajj (qiran or tamattu‘) he did, and his last days and decease.