| Summary/Abstract |
The Kitāb al-Maghāzī or “Book of the Raids” by the early Islamic historian Muḥammad b. ‘Umar al-Wāqidī (ca. 747–823) appeared for the first time in English translation in 2011. The editor and lead translator, Rizwi Faizer, asserts in her introduction (coauthored with Andrew Rippin) that “ … the primary theme that runs through al-Wāqidī’s Maghāzī is that Muḥammad’s battles were always defensive.” The present article shows that this is a misinterpretation of the text. According to the evidence supplied by al-Wāqidī, it is clear that Muḥammad’s military efforts were motivated by far more than mere self-defense. Warfare as Muḥammad practiced and preached it was missionary warfare. Its purpose was to stamp out polytheism, and, more broadly, to destroy a non-Islamic social and political order and to replace it with an Islamic one. The goal of this new order was, in turn, to induce conversion to Islam.
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