Suliman Bashear

Suliman Bashear PhD (1947 – 1991) was a leading Arab historian and professor at the University of Nablus and taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Bashear was noted for his work on the early historiography of Islam.

Life

Bashear was born in the northern Israeli village of Mghar. Bashear studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for his B.A. (1971) and M.A. (1973). In 1976, he received his Ph.D. at the University of London for his dissertation "Communism in the Arab East," which was published both in Arabic and English.

Bashear made international headlines when he was thrown out of a second storey window by Muslim extremists enraged by the thesis of his work which argued that Islam developed as a religion gradually within the historical context of Judaism and Christianity rather than being the revelation of a prophet.

He died from an illness in October, 1991.

Thesis

Bashear's historiography of early Islam considered not only the development of religious customs and beliefs, but also traced how later generations recast the past in order to meet the needs of their own era.Like the work of Patricia Crone, Yehuda D. Nevo , and other historiographers of early Islam, Bashear's research challenged what he considered to be the myth of a unified beginning Islam.

Books and writings

* "Arabs and Others in Early Islam": discusses the relationship between Arabs and non-Arabs in early Islam. 161p (The Darwin Press, 1997)
*"Introduction to the Other History" (1984)_
*"Communism in the Arab East: 1918-28 "
*"Muqaddima Fi al-Tarikh al-Akhar" " (in Arabic )
* "Apocalyptic and Other Materials on Early Byzantine Wars", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, 1 (1991), pp. 173-207.
*" Riding Beasts on Divine Missions: an Examination of the Ass and Camel Traditions", Journal of Semitic Studies, 36 (1991), 37-75.
*" Muslim apocalypses and the hour: a case-study in traditional reinterpretation", Israel Oriental Studies, vol. 13, 1993, pp. 75-99.
*"The Title of Fârûq and its Association with `Umar 1"
* "Abraham's Sacrifice of his Son and Related Issues," Der Islam 67, no. 2 (1990):243-277. Cf. Foroughi, Abraham's Sacrifice.