8vo. Volume I: xxvi, 582 pp., [1] / Volume II: [2], 548 pp., / Volume III: clxxx, 599 pp., half-title, index, cloth backed marbled boards, gilt labels on spine, browned & foxed throughout, book plate of Professor GHA Juynboll verso front covers, Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin, first edition, 1861-1865.

Synopsis

Julius Wellhausen considers his lengthy three-volumes biography to be of great importance. In his work “Muhammad in Medina”, p. 24/26, he writes: [ Translation of quote] “ For the discerning Arabist, Sprenger’s work is a rich trove of material and ideas; … and further “… Sprenger’s healthy and lively feelings for things comes through refreshingly in his work and the content of his record”.
The Qur’an itself ( almost two-thirds of it are contained in the work in his own translation), several documents, the Oriental and European biographies, the Sunna and the genealogical traditions provide the rich material basis which assisted Sprenger in compiling his work.
He attributes the emergence of Islam to the influence of Zeitgeist. According to the author, the religion did [ Translated quote] “ not develop from the blood, nor from the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man”. [Enay “ Mohammed and the Holy Qur’an”, 68 for the first edition].