Sizgorich transmits an idea from Somers, in which "it is frequently the case that individuals develop an understanding of their own place in the cosmos by imagining themselves as actors in an ongoing narrative" (24). Islam saw itself as a continuous tradition. It built upon earlier Judeo-Christian faith traditions in accepting their prophets and the believers as 'people of the Book,' placing themselves in the larger Judeo-Christian Biblical narrative.
Sizgorich: "texts of 'hybrid' lineage, part jahiliyya-style Bedouin war narrative, part pious tale in the late antique tradition"
writing about Islamic history with an assumption of total discontinuity ignores the context of the community. The revelation may have been completely discontinuous, an entirely unique and inimitable text, but the world into which that revelation was given had history already that interacted with and molded any community.
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