This book has, at the very least, four purposes: (1) to introduce general readers to the early history of Islam; (2) to sketch some of the salient features of the relationships among Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the Arabian Peninsula in the time leading up to and including the 7th century; (3) to summarize, compare, and contrast some of the key stories about figures in the Qur⊃an and Bible; and (4) to point to several of the key events, publications, and Muslim and Christian intellectuals involved in Muslim–Christian dialogue during modern times. The volume is divided into six chapters. In the Introduction, Busse introduces some of the key concepts within Islam and several significant 19th- and 20th-century scholarly works on Islam by Western writers. In the second chapter, he examines the political and religious background of the rise of Islam (giving particular attention to the pre-Islamic religious practices endemic to 7th-century Arabia as well as the historic presence of Jews and Christians in that region), the role of Mecca as a trading center, the complexities of the relationship of the Hanifs to the early Muslim community, and the various textual and oral sources which Muhammad may have used in the formulation of the Qur⊃an.