Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Book Review: Did Muhammad Exist?, by Robert Spencer - Atlas Shrugs


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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Book Review: Did Muhammad Exist?, by Robert Spencer

Zombie's review of Robert Spencer's shocking historical tome, Did Muhammad Exist?: An Inquiry into Islam's Obscure Origins, is brilliant and incisive.

Book Review: Did Muhammad Exist?, by Robert Spencer

Scholars have for centuries been pursuing clues to "the historical Jesus" — evidence that the religious figure now known as Jesus Christ actually once existed as a real person. There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of popular books, documentaries, television programs, magazine articles, research papers, films and more on the search for the "real" Jesus. While this investigation into the ultimate origins of Christianity may have once long ago been controversial, it is by now quite commonplace and accepted as a standard part of religious studies, even when the researchers conclude (as they often do) that the evidence for the historicity of Jesus is skimpy at best.

But no similar investigations have ever been conducted on the historicity of Muhammad (a.k.a. Mohammed, depending on the Arabic transliteration). Why not? Did muhammad exist

Most people assume that no one bothers to investigate whether or not Muhammad was a real person for the same reason that no one bothers to investigate the reality of other religious founders such as Joseph Smith or Martin Luther or Anton LaVey — because the evidence for their existence is overwhelming, well-documented and unquestioned. Regardless of whether or not Muhammad's teachings were moral or useful, everyone, even the most hardened infidels, of course accepts that he must have existed. Right?

Well, actually, no. At least not according to a surprising and eye-opening new book by Robert Spencer, the bestselling author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and many other books, and a well-known critic of the Islamic doctrine of jihad.

While it may be true that "absence of proof is not proof of absence," Spencer in his new book Did Muhammad Exist? does quite a convincing job of showing that there is, indeed, a complete "absence of proof" when it comes to the historicity of Muhammad. Yes, admittedly, it's nearly impossible to "prove a negative," and Spencer concedes as much; but in the vacuum of evidence there is no reason from a skeptic's perspective to accept as factually true the traditional stories about Muhammad. (As we will see, alternate theories about the origins of the Muhammad tales more closely match what little evidence we have.)

The Evidence

To tackle such a big subject, Spencer focuses on five potential sources of information about Muhammad:

1. Documents from the era (7th and 8th centuries) written by independent (i.e. non-Muslim) outside observers;
2. Documents from the era written or created by Arabs/Muslims themselves;
3. The Qur'an itself;
4. The Hadiths, Islamic commentaries and sayings collected in the 8th and 9th centuries; and
5. The first biography of Muhammad, written by Ibn Ishaq over a century after Muhammed's lifetime, on which all subsequent biographies are based.

Over the course of 200 pages, each category is carefully examined for solid evidence of Muhammad's historicity, and each category is found wanting.

Of particular interest to a skeptic like me is the first category, because it is the only one that counts as a truly independent source. I simply assume that Islam, like most religions, boasts sacred texts which are self-referential and self-confirming (turns out I was wrong, but more about that later).

So: What did non-Muslims have to say about Muhammad and Islam, during his lifetime, and for 60 years afterward?

Nothing.

They made no mention of Muhammad or Muslims or Islam at all, at least until around the start of the 8th century. In case you're thinking that there'd be no reason for outsiders to mention the religion of some obscure far-off tribe, remember that starting with the date of Muhammad's purported death in 632, Arabs galloped out of the desert and conquered or captured almost the entirety of the Near East, the Middle East and North Africa in just a few decades. They encountered many cultures and civilizations, but none of those conquered peoples seem even to have heard of Islam or Muhammad. As Spencer notes in Chapter 2,

The Arabian conquests are a historical fact; that the Arabian conquerors actually came out of Arabia inspired by the Qur'an and Muhammad is less certain.

There are many puzzling details which tend to cast doubt on the standard narrative of Islam's early years — that is, Muhammad's life, and the decades immediately after his death when Arabs conquered the Middle East under the banner of their new religion, Islam. For example, a record exists of what was essentially a religious debate between a Christian in Antioch and an Arab commander at the height of the Arab conquest of the region, but, as Spencer notes,

In it the author refers to the Arabians not as Muslims but as "Hagarians" (mhaggraye) — that is, the people of Hagar, Abraham's concubine and the mother of Ishmael. The Arabic interlocutor denies the divinity of Christ, in accord with Islamic teaching, but neither side makes any mention of the Qur'an, Islam, or Muhammad."

Imagine debating a "Christian" about religion, and he never mentions the Bible, Christianity, or Jesus. You might begin to doubt that he was a Christian at all.

And, jumping to the book's conclusion, that's exactly what Spencer posits: That the 7th century Arabs may have practiced a sort of nonspecific monotheism, loosely syncretized from pre-existing Judaic and Christian beliefs; but this new religion at first did not have a name, did not have a supposed "founder," did not have a sacred text, and did not have rigid rituals. All of those were added much later, but fashioned in such as way as to retroactively assert their own 7th-century origins.

Surprising even for me was the book's revelation that even among Arabic documents and artifacts, there is no mention of or example of any Qur'anic text until the year 691, a full 80 years after Muhammad supposedly started dictating it, and 60 years after it was completed and purportedly became the central text of Arab society. And even that 691 appearance — an inscription on the Dome of the Rock — may not have been a copy of Qur'anic text. From Spencer's book:

This Qur'anic material is the earliest direct attestation to the existence of the book — sixty years after the Arab armies that had presumably been inspired by it began conquering neighboring lands. … Given the seamlessly mixed Qur'anic / non-Qur'anic nature of the inscription and the way the Qur'an passages are pulled together from all over the book, some scholars, including Christoph Luxenberg, have posited that whoever wrote this inscription was not quoting from a Qur'an that already existed. Rather, they suggest, most of this material was added to the Qur'an only later, as the book was compiled. … It may be that both the Dome of the Rock and the Qur'an incorporated material from earlier sources that contained similar material in different forms."

As for the third potential source of contemporary information about Muhammad, the Qur'an itself, non-Muslims might be shocked to learn, as Spencer writes, that,

The name Muhammad actually appears in the Qur'an only four times, and in three of those instances it could be used as a title — the "praised one" or "chosen one" — rather than as a proper name. By contrast, Moses is mentioned by name 136 times, and Abraham, 79 times. Even Pharaoh is mentioned 74 times. Meanwhile, "messenger of Allah" (rasul Allah) appears in various forms 300 times, and "prophet" (nabi), 43 times. Are those all references to Muhammad, the seventh-century prophet of Arabia? Perhaps. Certainly they have been taken as such by readers of the Qur'an through the ages. But even if they are, they tell us little to nothing about the events and circumstances of his life.

Indeed, throughout the Qur'an there is essentially nothing about this messenger beyond insistent assertions of his status as an emissary of Allah and calls for the believers to obey him. Three of the four times that the name Muhammad is mentioned, nothing at all is disclosed about his life.
…
That is all as far as Qur'anic mentions of Muhammad by name go. In the many other references to the messenger of Allah, this messenger is not named, and little is said about his specific actions. As a result, we can glean nothing from these passages about Muhammad's biography. Nor is it even certain, on the basis of the Qur'anic text alone, that these passages refer to Muhammad, or did so originally."

Wait — there's basically nothing about Muhammad in the Qur'an?

And even if there had been, that may not have proven anything anyway. Spencer goes to great lengths to dissect the early history of the Qur'an, recounting how even Islamic sources admit that it was not compiled until long after Muhammad's death, often based on the memories of random people the compilers met by chance; and there are even competing versions of who compiled it and when, and what their political and military motivations were for including or excluding certain passages.

There is much more.

Posted by on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 04:31 PM in Books, Books I like |

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Comments

My question Mr. Spencer is, how could any sane person have recurring meetings, dreams, and visions with the same person (the angel Gabriel) for 22 years? Because of being illiterate, Mohammad did NOT log or write down any events...his biographers did not have one scrap of evidence to write the Qur'an with. Other than passages being recited by his close companions, or person-to-person, nothing was ever written down! None of Mohammad's so called angelic meetings were witnessed, or attested to orr validated.

Posted by: Jackson Pearson | Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 09:12 PM

Pharoah was a title, also. It is not clear - yet - who the Egyptian ruler of the Exodus was.

Posted by: Thelastdemocrat.wordpress.com | Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 09:50 PM

Hey Jackson, why don't you explain how all of that works so as to provide Robert an education on the subject? It's given that nothing was written of Muhammad in his time, can you tell us what your conclusion then is? Gosh, I hate to be left hanging like that.

I started reading the book yesterday and half way through the first chapter I can already sort of tell how the book will conclude, but I expect fascinating reading along the way. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades) was a great book for someone not well versed in the topick of Islam, but that format was almost like a comic book compared to Robert's current work.

This post ends with the message in the form of a link, "There is much more". At home now I see the additional 2nd and 3rd page on the link, they weren't showing using ie at work, so I have more to read. The comment section was available and the comments constitute a very interesting debate. I recommend hitting the link and reading some of the comments.

Posted by: Richard | Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 10:22 PM

No surprise there is little evidence for one camel jockey out of thousands. Illiterate is the word. Stone age culture is the word. Not much evidence about the stone age prophets either. Pretty clear he was fashioned and described, whether he existed or not, in as positive a light as those bloodthirsty cavemen could imagine. But, so what? It makes no difference. Those who believe in him, will. Those who don't, won't. Whether real or imagined, his portrayal over time speaks volumes about the only thing that really matters, the nature of the Islamic culture. Their prophet reveals to the world what we should all know, Islam is a system developed by and for vultures, bullies, cheats, rapists, murderers, perverts and slavers. Next question?

Posted by: W. C. Taqiyya | Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 10:35 PM

The phrase that Zombie used "a sort of nonspecific monotheism, loosely syncretized " jumped out at me. Recall from the book of Genesis that it seems Hagar was caught mocking Sarah. That is why her and Ismael (born of Abram/Abraham) were sent away. Still an angel came to her and blessed her son saying he would be a great nation of so many people they cannot be counted. And also this fore-knowledge was given to Sarah by an angel describing Ishmael: ""Behold, you are with child,
And you will bear a son;
And you shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the LORD has given heed to your affliction.
12
"He will be a wild donkey of a man,
His hand will be against everyone,
And everyone's hand will be against him;
And he will live to the east of all his brothers."Geneis 21

This is why Islam is at odds with Judaism. Judaism is the true vine and Islam mocks with loose syncretized features the Law and the Prophets of Tanach. It is a supernatural mockery. But leave that for another day. Finally, for you Jesus doubters out there notice the first 3 lines of what the Angel said to Sarah and how identical the phrases are to what the Angel said to Mary the mother of Jesus. That was centuries before Jesus was born and spoken to a simple woman who would not have fantasized those phrases to make a story. The Government will be upon His shoulders but for Ishmael he would be violent and start a new nation to the east.
I don't believe Mohammed existed. He is a synthesized mockery of the Lord born of jealousy and dying in judgment in the future brief presence before G-d.

Posted by: mzungu | Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 12:22 AM

@Richard:

I'm just asking a rhetorical question, so no pun or slam to Mr. Spencer, because over the years, he along with Pamela Geller have done exemplary work exposing the evils of Islam.

"Islam provides only one prime source of information on Muhammad and the formation of Islam written within two centuries of the time he lived and it was conceived. Ishaq's Sira, or Biography, stands alone—a singular and tenuous thread connecting us to a very troubled man and time. Over the next two hundred years, other Hadith Collections were compiled by the likes of Tabari, Bukhari, and Muslim. Their assemblages of oral reports, or Traditions, were said to have been inspired by Allah. They purport to convey Muhammad's words and example. They also explain the Qur'an—a book so deficient in context and chronology, it can only be understood when seen through the eyes of the Sunnah writers."

Read a ton more at: http://prophetofdoom.net/

Posted by: Jackson Pearson | Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 02:52 AM

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