This book, adopting the method of Rubin's earlier work on the image of the Prophet Muhammad, The Eye of the Beholder: The Life of Muhammad as Viewed by the Early Muslims (1995), examines hadith reports of the first three Islamic centuries that draw on Qurءanic/biblical material. He analyzes these reports as attempts on the part of Muslims to define themselves vis-à-vis the People of the Book—primarily Jews, and to a lesser extent Christians. Each of the work's three parts reflects a particular historical attitude toward the Jews and definition of the relationship between Jews and Muslims.