So, Mo was a plagiarist?
Actually, some scholars claim that he never existed.
Read this book if you can get it...
The author (Robert Spencer) combed through the writings of many Islamic researchers who have questioned the historiography of some event in Muhammad's perceived career as a `barker' for the Arabian dessert god Allah.
Is Muhammad the Arab version of England's Robin Hood? Perhaps not a real figure, but more of a figurine based on legends from the dim memories of faded accounts of misty campfire tales about past multiple adventure-action dune warriors and chieftains. Mr. Spencer unabashedly poses the heretical question: "Did Muhammad exist?
For instance, Mr. Spencer notes 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" (p. 17).
So the Quran itself bespeaks little about the realism of `Muhammadun rasulu Allahi' - and it appears that the Quran didn't bind up well until sixty years after its reciter's demise - even though Muslims maintain that it has always existed (p. 126). Mr. Spencer tried to find a `reality check' for Muhammad in both the ahadith (life stories) and Sira (biography)
When you dig into the younger years of Muhammad...his uncle was handling the “kid” and they were traders. This meant that one of the chief features of their occupation...was traveling around. So you got to move into different circles. Few people grasp this angle to the story.
In this period...630AD plus...you’d be surprised how many religions existed in the Middle East....literally hundreds. Mecca? It was a trader’s paradise but it also had a religious fest each year....for various groups to meet up at the Black Rock...as part of the fest.
So, Mohammad and the Uncle traveled around and he had thousands of opportunities to mingle with various religious groups. Eventually, he fell more into the religious angle, than the trader angle. I think you’d say...he was drawn to some answer in life. Eventually, he invented his own religion, using bits and pieces of what he’d picked from various Jewish groups and other religions.
This ‘before-Mohammad’ Koran? It’s a shocker because they had attempted in the period after Mohammad to gather up and destroy all the old copies, and issue out the official Koran. Oddly, this piece survives.
If you were looking for some angle to bring down the entire Islamic religion...you need to find more such editions....all prior to 630AD. One of the best places where such things might be found....is the library of the Vatican. But these guys are so screwed up on inventory....they could spend decades hunting through their archives.