Includes maps of: Important Places and Tribes of Early Islam According to Ptolemaeus.

Pt. 1. The early history of islam: The early history of Islam, following inscriptional and numismatic testimony / Volker Popp -- A new interpretation of the Arabic inscription in Jerusalem's Dome of the Rrock / Christoph Luxenberg -- On the origin of the informants of the Prophet / Claude Gilliot -- Abd al-Malik v. Marwan and the process of the Qur'an's composition / Alfred-Louis de Prémare -- pt. 2. --New aspects for the emergence and characteristic of Islam:. A personal look at some aspects of the history of Koranic criticism in 19th and 20th centuries / Ibn Warraq -- Pre-Islamic Arabic-Koranic Arabic-classical Arabic: a continuum? / Pierre Larcher -- From Syriac to Pahlavi: the contribution of the Sassanian Iraq to the beginning of the Arabic writing / Sergio Noja Noseda -- Early evidences of variant readings in Qurʼānic manuscripts / Alba Fedeli -- Leuke kome / Laykah, the "Arsians" / Gerd-R. Puin -- Raisons d'espérer / Mondher Sfar -- Syriac and Arabic Christianity and the Qurʼān -- Karl-Heinz Ohlig.