Includes bibliographical references and index.

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Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction; Chapter 1 Qaṣaṣ: Textual Evidence; Religious Qaṣaṣ; Divine Will and Human Responsibility (qadar); Death, the Final Judgment and the After-life; Exemplars-Pre-Islamic Prophets; The Sunna of the Prophet Muḥammad; Legal Rulings; Religious Knowledge (ʿilm); Martial Qaṣaṣ; The Conquest of Syria; Yazīd b. Shajara al-Rahāwī (d. 58/677); Sulaymān b. Ṣurad and the Rebellion of the Tawwābūn (65/685); Khārijī Quṣṣāṣ; Religio-political Qaṣaṣ: Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī; Chapter 2 Quṣṣāṣ Associations: With Whom Are the Quṣṣāṣ Associated?

Qurʼān Reciters (qurrāʼ)Qurʼān Commentators (al-mufassirūn); Percentages and Reputations; Quṣṣāṣ Representation in Tafsīr; The Tafsīr of ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī; The Tafsīr of Ṭabarī; Isrāʼīliyyāt; The Quṣṣāṣ and Isrāʼīliyyāt; The Quṣṣāṣ on Moses; The Quṣṣāṣ on Abraham; The Tafsīr of Muqātil b. Sulaymān: The Merging of Tafsīr with Qaṣaṣ and Isrāʼīliyyāt; The Quṣṣāṣ as Qurʼān Commentators; Ḥadīth Transmitters (muḥaddithūn); The Critical Image of the Quṣṣāṣ in Ḥadīth Transmission; Statistical Analysis of the Reputations of Quṣṣāṣ in Ḥadīth

Conflicting Sentiments on the Reliability of the Quṣṣāṣ in ḤadīthUnidentified Quṣṣāṣ; The Quṣṣāṣ as Ḥadīth Transmitters; Jurists (Fuqahāʼ); Judges (Quḍāt); Orators (Khuṭabāʼ); Admonishers (Wuʿʿāẓ); Mudhakkirūn; The Prophet as Qāṣṣ and Mudhakkir; Statistical Analysis and Textual Evidence; Ascetics; The Qāṣṣ as Scholar; Chapter 3 Qaṣaṣ Sessions: The Skills and Conduct of the Quṣṣāṣ; Skills; ʿIlm; Lisān; Bayān; Conduct; Decorum; Posture; Location; Time; Malpractices; Pride: "Know me (iʿrifūnī)!"; Loudness; Raising Hands; Mixed-gender Meetings; Swooning; Qaṣaṣ Sessions

Chapter 4 The Quṣṣāṣ: Conformists or Innovators?Qaṣaṣ at the Time of the Prophet; The Prophet as a Qāṣṣ; The Prophet with a Qāṣṣ; Qaṣaṣ under the Rāshidūn Caliphs; Abū Bakr "al-Ṣiddīq"; ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb; Uthmān b. ʿAffān; ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib; Qaṣaṣ and Religio-political Movements; Qaṣaṣ as an Innovation; Quṣṣāṣ and the Apocalypse; The Quṣṣāṣ as a Beneficial Innovation; The Quṣṣāṣ as Conformists or Innovators; Chapter 5 The Quṣṣāṣ during the Umayyad Period; Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān (r. 41-60/661-80); The Counter-caliphate of ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr (c. 63-72/682-91)

Marwān b. al-Ḥakam (r. 64-5/684-5)ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān (r. 65-86/685-705); Sulaymān b. ʿAbd al-Malik (r. 96-9/715-7); ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (r. 99-101/717-20); Yazīd b. ʿAbd al-Malik (r. 101-5/720-4); Hishām b. ʿAbd al-Malik (r. 105-25/724-43); Marwān b. Muḥammad (r. 127-32/744-50) and the Fall of the Umayyads; The Quṣṣāṣ under the Umayyads; Chapter 6 Conclusion; Appendix Biographical Sketches of the Quṣṣāṣ of Early Islam; Bibliography; Index of Modern Authors; Index of Sources; Index of Subjects

Islamic 'qass' (preacher/storyteller) has been viewed most commonly as a teller of stories, primarily religious in nature and often unreliable. Building on material of over a hundred 'qussas' from the rise of Islam through the end of the Umayyad period, this book offers the most comprehensive study of the early Islamic 'qass' to-date. By constructing profiles of these preachers/ storytellers and examining statements attributed to them, it argues that they were not merely storytellers but were in fact a complex group with diverse religious interests. The book demonstrates how the style and conduct of their teaching sessions distinguished them from other teachers and preachers and also explores their relationship with early religio-political movements, as well as with the Umayyad administration.