The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam is a 1999 book in the field of Quranic studies published by G. R. Hawting.
The book explores the Quranic conception of paganism and idolatry and how it has been understood, or perhaps misunderstood, through the lenses of later Islamic tradition, especially major works such as the Book of Idols of Hisham ibn al-Kalbi, as well as other sirah (biographies of Muhammad) and tafsir (exegeses of the Quran), which Hawting sees as unreliable and more representative of later attitudes towards the history of pre-Islamic Arabia as opposed to genuine information transmitted from the lifetime of Muhammad and earlier.
This, Hawting argues, is in opposition to the traditional view of the emergence of Islamic monotheism against a polytheistic background.
Finally, he geographically situates this competition among Middle Eastern confessional communities in the eighth or ninth centuries (following John Wansbrough's position in Quranic Studies (1977)) instead of the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh-century.
[2] One of the most controversial aspects of Hawting's work amongst other historians has been his conclusion, from his analysis about the religious background against which the Quran and Islamic monotheism emerged, that it should be geographically situated outside of Arabia.