Did the Prophet Muhammad Really Exist? This Is Robert Spencer’s Shocking Answer

The Blaze ^ | 05/05/2012 | Billy Hallowell

[SeekAndFind]

Did the Prophet Muhammad really exist? This question, which may seem bizarre on the surface, is at the root of a new book by Robert Spencer, a prominent author and the director of Jihad Watch. Spencer, a figure who is praised by his fans and loathed by his detractors, has written numerous books on Islam.

Earlier this week, The Blaze spoke with the expert about his controversial, new book, “Did Muhammad Exist?” As can be derived from the title, the text delves into some uncomfortable subject matter, as Spencer examines the historical documentation surrounding the Muslim prophet.

The book’s official description perfectly encapsulates its central tenets:

Did Muhammad exist?

It is a question that few have thought—or dared—to ask. Virtually everyone, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, takes for granted that the prophet of Islam lived and led in seventh-century Arabia. But this widely accepted story begins to crumble on close examination, as Robert Spencer shows in his eye-opening new book.

In his blockbuster bestseller The Truth about Muhammad, Spencer revealed the shocking contents of the earliest Islamic biographical material about the prophet of Islam.

Now, in Did Muhammad Exist?, he uncovers that material’s surprisingly shaky historical foundations. Spencer meticulously examines historical records, archaeological findings, and pioneering new scholarship to reconstruct what we can know about Muhammad, the Qur’an, and the early days of Islam. The evidence he presents challenges the most fundamental assumptions about Islam’s origins.

The premise of the book is that Islam — like Judaism and Christianity –deserves to be scrutinized and appropriately examined. Spencer maintains that Islam, unlike the other massive faith systems, has never truly been given the academic attention and examination it deserves. Like Christianity, he maintains that the faith is one that “deserve[s] historical scrutiny.”

[AdmSmith]

No, he is not a Muslim anymore and he is threatened by the other Muslims for his ideas.

[gnarledmaw]

Not true.

Mr Smith was a real person and famous novelist providing many fans with original, if contrived, work.

Mohammed is a fictional character in a book that is a conglomeration of ancient crime wave reports intertwined with inaccurately plagiarized stories.

[wideawake]

The textual analysis of the Koran in this book is fascinating, but even more interesting to me is how thin the contemporary sources are not just for Muhammad but also for the Quraysh, Mecca as a trade and pilgrimage center, most of the early "battles" etc.

The natural response is to say: "How could traditions this complicated and self-contradictory be pure inventions - they probably have some basis in partly-remembered events and persons."

However, in this case the earliest version is incredibly simple and straightforward - all the "convincing" intricate details sprung up out of nowhere 75-200 years later.

And the earliest version is incomprehensible in Muslim terms.

I haven't finished the book, but I'm wondering what the larger historical links are between the proto-Islam of the Syrian Uthman and the iconoclasm of the Syrian Konon (Byzantine Emperor Leo III).

[AdmSmith]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textual_criticism is very interesting, but we have to wait until it is possible to fill this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textual_criticism_of_the_Quran with info ;-)