This book investigates the literary role played by the Bible in Islamic sources. It focuses on the tension between Biblical and Qur'anic models as revealed in Islamic texts describing contacts between the Muslims and the "Children of Israel", as Jews and Christians are usually called in the context of world history.

By adopting the method of his earlier work on the image of the Prophet Muhammad, The Eye of the Beholder: The Life of Muhammad as Viewed by the Early Muslims, Rubin examines hadith reports of the first three Islamic centuries that draw on Qura'nic and biblical material. Each of the work's three parts reflects a particular historical attitude toward the Jews and definition of the relationship between Jews and Muslims.

This book will be of interest to students of the history and interpretation of the Qur'an and of early Islamic tradition and dogma and early Islamic history, as well as to all those interested in comparative religion and intercultural relations between Muslims and non-Muslims.