Articles by Patricia Crone

Saturday 7th November

No pressure, then: religious freedom in Islam

Patricia Crone, 7 November 2009
The Quranic statement: “There is no compulsion in religion” – erupted into controversy again in 2006 when the Pope selected the most illiberal view of the text available. But when the thirty-eight Muslim scholars responded that he was wrong, they were necessarily misrepresenting history. To understand why they might wish to do this, we have to go back to 720-750 AD.
Tuesday 10th June

What do we actually know about Mohammed?

Patricia Crone, 10 June 2008
How new evidence and insight is enriching historical understanding of early Islam (archive)
Monday 30th April

'Jihad': idea and history

Patricia Crone, 30 April 2007
The notion of jihad is one of the most contested in the modern Islamic and political lexicon. In a four-part essay, Patricia Crone makes it comprehensible
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