Essay Assignment

Badr , Uhud, Hudaybiya, and the Conquest of Mecca are some of the most important events that shaped the legacy of Muhammad and the first Muslim community, and continue to have great religious significance in Islamic memory. What do the accounts of these events tell us about the relationship between the Prophet and his followers and how this relationship develops over the course of these events? Is the development of this relationship clearer in the earlier (Ibn Ishaq) or later (Lings, Asfaruddin, Ramadan) tellings of these events? How and why?

Content requirements for the essay

• NOTE: this essay should be at least 4 pages in length to cover the material.

• the introductory paragraph should summarize the student's basic answer to the questions posed, and the body of the essay should then elaborate on the points mentioned in the introduction

• the essay question must be answered exclusively on the basis of the class readings for these two units (Badr and Uhud, Hudaybiya and Conquest of Mecca)

• the essay must demonstrate that the student has read the assigned readings thoroughly and thoughtfully

• the essay should reflect the student's own analysis of the reading as it relates to the essay question, but the essay is NOT meant to be a presentation of the student's opinion of the readings or their authors (those issues are for class discussion)

Form requirements for the essay

• 4 pages

• double-spaced; 12 point font; maximum 1.25 margins

• all citations should be from the readings, and for either direct quotes or indirect references on can simply cite the readings as follows: (Guillaume, p. 25) or (Lings, p. 92). No works cited page or bibliography is required.

• direct quotes from the readings should be kept to a minimum and should be used only in order to present an analysis of the passage. The student should never quote from the text something that can be paraphrased in the student's own words.