Framing the Sīrah

Representations of Prophet Muḥammad in Introductory Texts on Islam by Contemporary Western Islamicists

Abstract

This paper closely examines the representation of the Prophet Muḥammad (peace be on him) in four widely used introductory textbooks on Islam authored by leading Western Islamicists W. Shepard, J. L. Esposito, D. Brown, and A. Knysh. These texts, published by leading academic presses and widely adopted in university curricula, serve as the primary intellectual entry point through which students and non-specialist readers gain an understanding of Islam. Despite their prominence, relatively little attention has been paid to how the sīrah of the Prophet is constructed in these texts. This article attempts to fill this gap by addressing three interrelated questions: What frameworks are used to render the Prophet comprehensible within these textbooks? How is the sīrah translated, condensed, and reconfigured in the textbook form? And what methodological and epistemological assumptions inform these portrayals? In addressing these questions, the study does not seek to adjudicate questions of accuracy or normative adequacy. Rather, it aims to illuminate the discursive structures, methodological choices, and epistemic commitments that shape contemporary academic representations of the Prophet. The analysis draws on a well-established distinction between the “historical Muḥammad” as constructed in modern Western historiography, and the “Muḥammad of faith” as preserved within the Islamic tradition. By situating textbook representation at the intersection of these paradigms, this study examines the epistemological tensions that arise when a sacred biography is presented within a secular academic framework. The paper concludes that many academic representations continue to oscillate between reductive historicism and sympathetic engagement, often reproducing what Matthew Dimmock terms “the misrepresentation of a biography.”