Fred McGraw Donner (born 1945) is an Islamic scholar and Professor of Near Eastern History at the University of Chicago.[1]
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Donner was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, where he attended public schools. In 1968 he completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Oriental Studies at Princeton University, having interrupted his studies from 1966 to 1967 to pursue the study of Arabic in Lebanon. From 1968 to 1970 he served with the U. S. Army Security Agency in Herzogenaurach, Germany. He then studied oriental philology for a year (1970-1971) at the Friedrich-Alexander Universität in Erlangen, Germany, before returning to Princeton for doctoral work. Donner received his PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton in 1975. He taught Middle Eastern history in the History Department at Yale University from 1975-1982 before taking his position at the University of Chicago in 1982 (The Oriental Institute and Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations). He served as chairman of his Department (1997–2002) and as Director of the University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies (2009–present).
His book The Early Islamic Conquests (1981) has been described as "magisterial"[2] and "a major contribution to the understanding of early Islamic history" (International Journal of Middle East Studies).[3] It is used as a set text for several university courses.[4] He has also published a translation of a volume of the history of al-Tabari.[1] His book Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, an account of the early years of the spiritual movement that would come to be known as Islam, was published by Harvard University Press in May 2010. Donner's main argument is that what came to be called Islam began as a monotheistic "Believers' movement" inaugurated by the prophet Muhammad which included righteous Christians and Jews as well as those monotheists who followed the teachings of the Qur'an. This argument was first presented at a "Late Antiquity and Early Islam" workshop in London in 1993, and published in his article "From Believers to Muslims," which appeared in the journal Al-Abhath 50-51 (2002–2003), pp. 9–53.
In his Narratives of Islamic Origins, he argues for an early date for the Qur'an text. He responds in particular to the theory of late canonization of the Qur'an proposed by John Wansbrough and Yehuda D. Nevo.[5] The book attempts to explain how concerns for legitimation in the developing Islamic community shaped the themes that are the focus of Islamic historical writing, particularly the themes of prophecy, community, hegemony, and leadership.
In 2007, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship[6] to examine Arabic papyri from the first Islamic century (seventh century CE) at collections in Paris, Vienna, Oxford, and Heidelberg.
Donner is the editor of the journal Al-Usur al-Wusta: The Bulletin of Middle East Medievalists.[7]
Donner is currently the President-Elect of the Middle East Studies Association of North America.