The text provides one of the earliest external accounts of
Islam, presenting a significantly different Islamic
historiography than found in traditional Islamic texts. It also shows Jacob comparing the Byzantine Empire to
the fourth beast of the prophecy of Daniel from Judeo-Christian
eschatology. Although not unfamiliar imagery, it is part of a series of
Byzantine literature, from the early stages of the Islamic religion, of trying to reconcile Islam with the apocalyptic vision. Further examples of this are contained in the pseudo-
Athanasian's
Quaestiones ad Antiochum ducem, and the
Quaestiones et responsiones attributed to
Anastasius of Sinai. It records a prophet in Arabia who was waging war. According to
Crone, who has presented a highly disputed account of the period, the document contradicts the notion in Islamic tradition that the prophet Muhammad was dead at the time of the
conquest of Palestine but agrees with some traditions of other peoples of the time.
Academic commentaries on the work • "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" • "To be sure, the picture given in the Doctrina Iacobi seems garbled, and many of its details disagree with the traditional account (for example, in seeming to describe the prophet as leading the armies of the Saracens himself). ... Yet one could hardly expect a Byzantine source from this early and turbulent period to get all the details right. Even later, most Byzantine sources displayed gross misunderstanding of matters Islamic, just as Muslim sources generally did of matters Byzantine." –
Colin Wells. ==Notes==