Fatima and the Daughters of Muhammad

{{Short description|Book by Henri Lammens}}

{{italic title}}Fatima and the Daughters of Muhammad (French Fatima et les Filles de Mahomet) is a book written by Henri Lammens (Rome and Paris: Scripta Pontificii Instituti Biblici, 1912), in which he claims that Muhammad had not intended his succession to go through children of Fatima and she was not Muhammad's favourite daughter.{{cite book |title=Die Dunklen Anfänge: Neue Forschungen Zur Entstehung und Frühen |last=Ohlig |first=Karl-Heinz |author2=Puin, Gerd-R. |year=2006 |publisher=Verlag Hans Schiler |isbn=3-89930-128-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QOzj_1Q5og4C&pg=PA218 |page=218 }} He also claims that Muhammad's household, the Ahl al-Bayt, consisted exclusively of his wives, to the exclusion of his blood relations.{{cite book |title=The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate |last=Madelung |first=Wilferd |year=1997 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-64696-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2QKBUwBUWWkC&pg=PA3 |page=3 }} Louis Massignon criticized Lammens for 'misinforming' his readers with his 'far too cynical and disparaging study' of Fatima.« Der gnostische Kult der Fatima in shiitischen Islam » (1938); Opera Minora (Beirut: Dar Al-Maaref Liban, 1963), I, 514-22.

According to Ibn Warraq, the book substantiates that all data concerning material favourable to Fatima, Ali and their children is subject to a searching criticism, however Lammens collected all material pertaining to anti-Ali and Fatima without considering whether something is right or wrong. He points out that a biography of the Prophet compiled by Lammens was never published by express orders from Rome, as its publication might have embarrassed the Holy See.{{cite web|author= Ibn Warraq |url=https://www.newenglishreview.org/Ibn_Warraq/Skepticism_And_Koranic_Research/|title=Skepticism And Koranic Research |publisher= New English Review |date= December 2007 |accessdate=10 December 2017}}