The Book of Abraham and the Islamic Qisas al-Anbiya" (Tales of the Prophets) Extant Literature Bradley J. Cook INTRODUCTION PERHAPS THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL and intensely contested revelatory claim of Joseph Smith Jr. is his translation of ancient papyri ostensibly written by the hand of Abraham. The Book of Abraham, 1 as the record is called, purports to be an autobiographical account of the ancient patri- arch illuminating many specifics of his early life and ministry on which the Bible is mute. Bold though this assertion might be, recent scholarship into apocalyptic and pseudepigrahal sources provides compelling tex- tual parallels to the Book of Abraham. 2 While considerable analysis of the Book of Abraham has been done in light of ancient Egyptian and Jewish extra-Biblical sources, little scholarly exploration has occurred in me- dieval and classical Islamic texts. This deficit is largely due to the relative 1. The Pearl of Great Price, (Salt Lake City, UT: Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1981), 1:16-17, hereafter referred to as Abraham. 2. See M. D. Rhodes, "A Translation and Commentary of the Joseph Smith Hypocephalus," BYU Studies, (Spring, 1977): 350-399; Hugh Nibley, Abraham in Egypt (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 2000); Hugh Nibley, "The Facsimiles of the Book of Abraham," Sunstone (December 1979): 49-51; John Gee, "A History of the Joseph Smith Papyri and the Book of Abraham," transcript of a lecture presented on 3 March 1999 as part of the FARMS Book of Abraham Lecture Series; M. D. Rhodes, "The Joseph Smith Hypocephalus. . .Seven- teen Years Later," FARMS Publications, 1994; and Hugh Nibley, The Message of the Prophet Joseph Smith Papyri, An Egyptian Endowment (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1975).