been directed toward transmitting them to a degree that surpasses people’s eagerness to transmit most of the signs granted to the prophets before him, and even exceeds their zeal for passing down the wondrous tales found in the chronicles of kings and caliphs. Whoever looks closely at the way these signs have been reported will discover that their fame in every age, and the sheer prominence of the reports about them, outstrip the renown of what has come down to us concerning the earlier prophets or the lives of monarchs and dynasties—subjects that customarily arouse keen interest and strong motivation to record and relate them. Yet when something is established by recurrent mass transmission, this does not mean it must reach every single individual.

For much of what is mass-transmitted within any given nation about the deeds of its predecessors remains unheard by many other nations, let alone transmitted among them. Indeed, many peoples who are unfamiliar with the prophets may never even have heard their names or stories, much less received them through mass transmission. Likewise, most followers of the prophets do not possess, by mass transmission, the reports of kings and their biographies to the extent that others do. In fact, the majority of Muslims have never heard the names of the Umayyad or Abbasid caliphs, nor the names of their viziers, governors, and commanders.