[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 ;-)