In the end I didn’t buy this book as my Arabic is not good enough to follow the discussion, but it is a new scholarly work that a must read for those who can.

As an undergraduate studying the Bible at university I was told that the Exodus story in the Old Testament was just a myth. I bought this book by a top American scholar as it claims to bring real evidence of a historical basis for the exodus. The biblical account of millions fleeing Egypt may be a wild exaggeration, but the exodus itself is not a myth.

Ibn Hanbal (died 241 H/855 AD) is a very significant figure in the history of Islam, renowned as a scholar of hadith, admired for resisting attempts by two Abbasid caliphs to force him to deny the Quran’s status as uncreated Word of God. I quickly snapped up this fascinating new book.

Categories: Bible, Biblical scholarship, Books, Islam, Recommended Reading, Scholarship