Doctrina Iacobi

The Doctrina Iacobi is a 7th-century Greek tract written in the Middle East between 634 and 640 A.D. The manuscript provides one of the earliest external accounts of the origins of Islam, presenting a significantly different Islamic historiography than that found in traditional Islamic texts.

It records Muhammed as a Judeo-Arab preacher proclaiming the advent of a Jewish Messiah and that the Jews and Arabs were allies against the Byzantines, contradicting accounts in the Qur'an.

• What is significant here is the possibility that Jews and Arabs (Saracens) seem to be allied together during the time of the conquest of Palestine and even for a short time after (Patricia Crone and Michael Cook, 1976).

• This document is plausibly one of the most archaic elements of the Islamic tradition; its agreement with the earliest external accounts of the origins of Islam is highly significant (Patricia Crone and Michael Cook, 1977).