Satanic Verses Satanic Verses The Satanic Verses incident, known as "qissat al-gharaniq" ("Story of the Cranes"), is the name given to the occasion on which the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, is said to have mistaken the words of "satanic suggestion" for divine revelation. Narratives involving the alleged verses (or verse) can be read in, among other places, the biographies of Muhammad by al-Wāqidī, Ibn Sa'd (who was a scribe of Waqidi) and Ibn Ishaq (as reconstructed by Alfred Guillaume), as well as the tafsir of al-Tabarī. The majority of Muslim scholars have rejected the historicity of the incident on the basis of the
Satanic Verses related traditions exist, some adapted to Qur'ānic material, some not. One version, appearing in Tabarī's "Tafsīr" and attributed to Urwah ibn Zubayr (d. 713), preserves the basic narrative but with no mention of satanic temptation. Muhammad is persecuted by the Meccans after attacking their idols, during which time a group of Muslims seeks refuge in Abyssinia. After the cessation of this first round of persecution ("fitna") they return home, but soon a second round begins. No compelling reason is provided for the caesura of persecution, though, unlike in the incident of the satanic verses, where it is the (temporary) fruit