Analysis, criticism and evaluation of the second volume of Leona Caetani's History of Islam

Orientalism, which has an active place in Western countries, was also hosted in Italy. Within the scope of these studies, Oriental Language Institutes and Research Centers were established. Through these centers, a wealth of knowledge about the East was accu-mulated. Leone Caetani from Italy was involved in these studies with her work "Annali dell' Islam" (History of Islam). In our thesis, we tried to analyze, criticize and evaluate the second volume of the work translated into Ottoman by Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın under the title "History of Islam". In this context, information about Orientalism, Leone Caetani and Hüseyin Cahit YALÇIN's life is given in the first chapter. In the Second Chapter, Caeta-ni's views on the concept of Hanîf and the people known as Hanîf are given and then the status of these views according to the basic sources of Islam is evaluated. In the third chap-ter, Caetani's evaluations on the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad are discussed and how Caetani evaluates the sources according to his owm opinion is indicated. In the fourth chapter, his claims about the concept of "revelation" are discussed. It is determined whet-her these claims are in accordance with the main sources of Islamic history. As a result, it has been observed that Caetani's topics in this work reveal a negative and prejudiced attitude towards Islam, the Prophet Muhammad and revelation, and that the views he claims about the topics he deals with are incompatible with the truth. Key Words: Islamic History, Holy Quran, Prophet Muhammad, Hanîf, Caetani, Annali dell'İslam.