Testimony #4: Early List of Muhammad’s Successors

From “External References to Islam” http://www.christianorigins.com/islamrefs.html: List of Early Muslim leaders:

Ad Annum 705 (October 705)

“A report giving information about the kingdom of the Arabs, and how many kings there were from them, and how much territory each of them held after his predecessor before he died.

Mhmt {Muhammad} came upon the earth in {year} 932 of Alexander, son of Philip the Macedonian ({AD} 620-21); then he reigned 7 years.

Then there reigned after him Abu Bakr for 2 years.

And there reigned after him ‘Umur for 12 years.

And there reigned after him ‘Uthman for 12 years, and they were without a leader during the war of Siffin (Sefe) for 5½ years.

Thereafter Ma’wiya {Muawiya} reigned for 20 years.

And after him Izid the son of Ma’wiya reigned for 3½ years.

{In margin: and after Izid for one year they were without a leader}

And after him ‘Abdulmalik reigned for 21 years.

And after him his son Walid took power in AG 1017, at the beginning of first Tishrin (October 705).

[From the book (pp. 394-395):]

“This list of Arab rulers is found in a late ninth-century manuscript of very varied contents, sandwiched between ‘select sentences from the proverbs of Solomon’ and ‘extracts from the discourse of Isaac of Antioch on prayer.’ Its provenance is thus unknown and it is presumably incomplete since the promised statistics regarding Muslim-occupied lands do not appear. Rather than the ten years apiece granted them by Muslim sources, Muhammad is given a seven-year reign and ‘Umar, possibly to make up the shortfall, is accorded twelve years. An accession date is provided for Walid alone, which suggests that the list did end with him and that this event was recent. Hence October 705 or shortly after is the most probable time of composition.”

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