Hello /r/askhistorians,

I searched, but could not find a post for what I wanted to ask (my apologies if there is one, and if so, please link to the previous discussion so that I may read it).

I am looking for information on the Prophet Muhammad as a statesman.

[Disclosure: I am writing an essay (brief, 3000 to 4000ish words) although it is not for school or anything, it is for a community project.]

The general topics I have chosen to base my essay on are:

• Muhammad (pbuh)'s foreign policy: How did he deal with foreign nations and leaders, peacetime and war, and what are the pros (and cons) of his approaches. Diplomatic envoys, relations, anything of the sort.

• Internal affairs: nation building, social rights, legal rights and responsibilities of leaders and of citizens, the economic system. A good statesman/leader should lead his own state/peoples with good policies etc.

• Treaties and etc: Examples of the treaties between his own peoples, former enemies, other nations etc. What were the benefits of such deals for lasting peace and lasting relations between involved parties.

Those are the general lines of thought that I have, I was hoping if any of you could provide me with information or research links, or if you have any other thoughts on things which I should include. I have my father helping me but unfortunately almost all of his books and sources aren't in English which becomes a problem for me, and I don't want to bother him all day for translations etc.

Additionally, a small request (I hope this is within the rules): wherever possible, could you provide me with a citation or a link? I will need to cite everything I discuss in my essay and it would save me time (I'm kinda lazy :P)

Thank you to everyone for all of your input and answers and thank you for taking the time to respond. I hope you have a wonderful day :)

I can't imagine our thoughts on exercise sciences or physiology were the same so I've always wondered if things like that made a difference. Certainly more technology to learn and master today but did the trainers allow the recruits to hydrate as much in example?

I didn't watch tv when I was a kid but noticed other kids repeating the same phrases all the time and getting a knowing laugh from their peers, it seems like demonstrating familiarity with a text is a way of creating an in-group. I imagine before TV shows people were already quoting books they'd read, and I guess in some ways common salutations that take their origins from biblical quotes or catholic litany or whatever could be called the same thing, but what about something that's definitively entertainment based or secular? What about people quoting philosophical texts to sound learned? I don't mean quoting to establish a point, but merely to demonstrate familiarity, especially the kind of thing you see on Reddit all the time where one commenter adds one line of a song or half of a quote and then somebody else comes along and mines a bunch of upvotes by saying the next bit.

It seems to now be an accepted fact that much of central Asia is descended from one man of a certain era and that this man is Genghis khan.

How did we get to the point where this is accepted? The era may be correct, but do we know that GK was a notorious sex fiend? Did he have 500 concubines? How did he find the time to run all of these wars of conquest? Was he particularly fecund? Obviously there is no genetic material.

It seems at least as likely that there was a handsome, well connected, wealthy, trader or merchant who covered a lot of ground on the silk road?

Is there anything in the historical record which supports something which sounds like a whimsical bit of fun that somehow became the accepted truth.

It seems like starting the next day at sunrise is far more natural. At what point did we start considering midnight to be the dividing point between days? Are there parts of the world where they don't share this practice?

I've often wondered why there are so many Japanese (nearly 128 million), when the islands they live on are relatively isolated on the fringe of Asia. In addition, the islands themselves are very mountainous and contain little arable land.

Is it simply because of the extreme poverty Japan experienced until quite recently? Or was there at some point an official/semi-official push to settle down and have children?

how did barbarian tribes like the franks and ostrogoths become feudal kingdoms like francia and italia?

I know it's a pretty big timespan too, but perhaps during the World Wars did Britain begin to see any particular colony as more valuable or trusted than the others?

It seems to me that the boots I'm imagining them to have are very smooth on the bottom. How the hell would they charge at the enemy in dewy or wet grass, or in the middle of rainfall? How would they quickly change directions in the melee? It keeps me up at night.

Were there exams to pass? Did the headmaster have to watch the success of every individual student?

Like do we really know what they looked like, how they dressed, what they ate, what their language was, and how their society worked? Also what exactly are vikings? Are they just big dudes with beards holding axes? Was that really how vikings looked?