Tales of the Ancients (Asatir al-Awwalin): The Accusation and the Response, Both Columns

The Word the Accusers Used

Fourteen centuries ago, in the markets and assemblies of Mecca, a single Arabic phrase was thrown at a man who claimed to receive revelation: asatir al-awwalin — "the tales of the ancients." It was not a compliment. It was an accusation, and a precise one: that what he recited was old folklore, stories of bygone peoples, dictated to him and written down morning and evening.

What makes this accusation unusual is that we do not know it only from the biographers of the Prophet or from his critics. We know it because the Quran itself quotes it — repeatedly, by name — and then answers it. The charge and the reply sit in the same book.