Book Reviews 145 

History Testifies to the Infallibility of the Qur'an: 

Early History of the Children of Israel 

Louay Fatoohi and Shetha al-Dargazelli 

Delhi: Adam Publishers and Distributors, 1999. 265 pages. 

Dr. Fatoohi and Prof. al-Dargazelli have produced an intriguing and far­
reaching comparison of the Bible and the Qur' an relating to Moses and the 

Israelites. Both authors are kha/ifahs of Shaykh Muhammad al-Casnazani 
al-Husseini of the Aliyyah Qadiriyyah Casnazaniyyah Sufi tariqah. They 

hold degrees in physics from Baghdad University and Durham University, 
and have authored numerous books, especially on Sufism, in Arabic and 
English. 

Although readers might expect this book to address literary and cul­
tural issues surrounding the shared but different accounts of Moses and the 

Israelites in the Bible and the Qur'an, the authors have chosen to focus on 
demonstrating the Qur'an's historical accuracy. Dividing their book into 

IO chapters, they argue alternately that the Bible is inconsistent and his­
torically inaccurate, while the Qur'an is consistent and confirmed by 

external historical evidence. The Biblical account of Moses and the 
Israelites is not directly compared to the Qur'anic account; rather, the 

Bible is used primarily as a foil to emphasize what the authors see as the 
Qur'an's reliability. For example, while the authors point out that the Bible 

appears to give various names for Moses' father-in-law (Exodus 2: I 8, 3: I,