Don't annoy David Powers

Last winter this blog flooded the zone on Sean Anthony. David Powers is on that case. He is... less forgiving, than I was.

Powers, like me, came to Anthony's book with published material as overlaps Anthony's dataset. I admit to some annoyance that Anthony had not referred to my work when he did his work. I don't overlap Powers, much, for my part; Powers is on the sura 4 / sura 33 beat. It turns out that Anthony didn't refer to any of Powers' work, on that score, either. Anthony claimed the Qurân bears no biographical material on the Prophet. Uh. Dude. Sura 33?

If you assert that the Qurân is unfit for the sîra, you need an argument as to why sura 33 doesn't count. I can dismiss sura 33, because my two projects didn't touch that particular sura - here's the thing, tho': both those projects say as much. Can Anthony dismiss sura 33? I'd argue that he can. But - says Powers - Anthony has to argue that point. Anthony has to say as much.