THE WRITING OF DOCUMENTS IN THE PRE-ISLAMIC AGE

The Arabian civilization into which the Prophet Muhammad was born had long been a literate and highly organized society. For some time before Islam Arabians were writing in the Arabic language, though the question of the scripts they employed is a complicated matter. Letters in the language of Najrān, probably Arabic, are mentioned in the Letter of Simeon of Bêth Arshâm, recently brought to light, and the Najrān chiefs used to inherit writings or books from one another. At Husn Mabraq of Wādī am-Naqa‘, in the territory of the Nakha‘ī tribe of the southern Yemen, “Himyarī” and Kufic rock inscriptions figure side by side, and very early Arabic rock inscriptions or graffiti are to be found in many parts of western Arabia. The people who scribbled on these rocks cannot but have belonged to a society with a high degree of literacy.

The conventional forms and phraseology of written political documents, already well established when Muhammad came upon the scene, were generally followed by him. Indeed the doctrine, formulated in the later development of Islam, that Muhammad could neither read nor write is hardly tenable. To Richard Bell's advocacy of his literacy must be joined the fact of the Prophet's social standing. How could the scion of the aristocratic religious house, who reckoned famous arbiters like ‘Abd al-Muttalib among his close ancestors, and who took charge of trading caravans to Syria, lack so essential an accomplishment? If the Thaqīf merchants of al-Ta'if kept “sheets” (sahīfah, pi. suhuf) recording loans plus interest, surely the Prophet would keep written accounts?