Quest for the Historical Muhammad
Encyclopedia
- For other uses, see The Quest of the Historical Muhammad
The Quest for the Historical Muhammad, edited by Ibn Warraq
Ibn Warraq
Ibn Warraq is the pen name of a polemical author of Pakistani origin who is critical of Islam, and who founded the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society . He is a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry focusing on Qur'anic criticism...
, is an anthology of 15 studies examining the origins of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
. The contributors argue that traditional Islamic accounts of its history and the origins of the Qur'an are fictitious and based on historical revisionism aimed at forging a religious Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
identity.
Summary of arguments
- Although the unreliability of the Arabic literary sources has been known for a century, only recently have scholars begun to explore its full implications, thanks largely to the ground-breaking work of the American scholar John WansbroughJohn WansbroughJohn Edward Wansbrough was an American historian who taught at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies . Wansbrough's emphasis was on the critique of traditional accounts of the origins of Islam...
.
- Philologists and scholars look skeptically at the Arabic written sources and conclude that these are a form of "salvation history" - self-serving, unreliable accounts by the faithful.
- Most of the material asserted by Islamic revisionist scholars is dubious, written mostly to promote of a self serving religious agenda. The use of the historical methods disproves most of the traditional accounts to such a degree that Patricia CronePatricia CronePatricia Crone, Ph.D., is a scholar, author, Orientalist, and historian of early Islamic history working at the Institute for Advanced Study. She established herself as a major challenger to the established narrative of the early history of Islam.- Career :Patricia Crone completed her...
has written, that "one could, were one so inclined, rewrite most of Montgomery Watt's biography of Muhammad in reverse." For example, an inscription and a Greek account leads Lawrence ConradLawrence ConradLawrence I. Conrad , is a historian of Near Eastern Medicine, at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in London, UK and a Lecturer at University College, London.He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University...
to fix Muhammad's birth in 552, not 570.
- Patricia CronePatricia CronePatricia Crone, Ph.D., is a scholar, author, Orientalist, and historian of early Islamic history working at the Institute for Advanced Study. She established herself as a major challenger to the established narrative of the early history of Islam.- Career :Patricia Crone completed her...
contends that the events of Muhammad's life did not take place in MeccaMeccaMecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
as believed by traditionalists but hundreds of miles to the north.
- Yehuda D. NevoYehuda D. NevoYehuda D. Nevo b. 1932 was a Middle Eastern archeologist living in Israel. He died after a long battle with cancer in 1992.Nevo discovered Kufic inscriptions in the Negev desert in Israel, four hundred of which were published in Ancient Arabic Inscriptions from the Negev...
and Judith Koren trace the origins of classical Arabic to the LevantLevantThe Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
rather than in what is today Saudi Arabia and that it only spread to Arabia through the military expansions of one of the early caliphs.
- The ArabArabArab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
tribes who conquered great expanses of land in the seventh century were not Muslims, but pagans.
- The Qu'ran is actually a collection of adaptations from earlier Judeo-ChristianJudeo-ChristianJudeo-Christian is a term used in the United States since the 1940s to refer to standards of ethics said to be held in common by Judaism and Christianity, for example the Ten Commandments...
liturgical materials compiled by self-serving later authors.
- Islam did not come into existence until two or three hundred years after the date claimed by traditional Muslim accounts (around CE 830).
- Islam developed not in the far deserts of Arabia but through the interaction of Arab conquerors with the societies they overran.
- Quest for the Historical Muhammad raises basic questions for Moslems concerning the prophet's role as a moral paragon; the sources of Islamic law; and the God-given nature of the Koran.
Reception
In his review, Daniel PipesDaniel Pipes
Daniel Pipes is an American historian, writer, and political commentator. He is the founder and director of the Middle East Forum and its Campus Watch project, and editor of its Middle East Quarterly journal...
praised the book as a "fascinating collection of essays" that raises "basic questions for Muslims concerning the prophet's role as a moral paragon".
Criticism
Other well-known American scholars such as Fred DonnerFred Donner
Fred McGraw Donner is an Islamic scholar and Professor of Near Eastern History at the University of Chicago.-Early life:Donner was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, where he attended public schools...
has criticized the selection of essays, and described it as a "monument to duplicity". Donner writes that Warraq unduly favors revisionist
Historical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about a historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...
theories in order to advance "anti-Islam polemic," forwarding that "this lopsided character makes The Quest for the Historical Muhammad a book that is likely to mislead many an unwary general reader."
Alfons Teipen, a professor of religion at Furman University
Furman University
Furman University is a selective, private, coeducational, liberal arts college in Greenville, South Carolina, United States. Furman is one of the oldest, and more selective private institutions in South Carolina...
, criticized the editing: "The two introductory articles... are one-sided, rather polemical overview[s] of... scholarship on the life of Muhammad."
Asma Afsaruddin described the book as a "partisan work" and added that Warraq "clearly has an ideological axe to grind". Asma states that "poor editing, sloppy transliteration, and ad hominem
Ad hominem
An ad hominem , short for argumentum ad hominem, is an attempt to negate the truth of a claim by pointing out a negative characteristic or belief of the person supporting it...
attacks on certain authors...especially Watt
William Montgomery Watt
William Montgomery Watt was a Scottish historian, an Emeritus Professor in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh...
, add to the chagrin of the reader", and argued that "Ibn Warraq is not interested in debate; he wants nothing less than wholesale conversion to his point of view within the community of scholars of Islam" and added that his book "needlessly poisons the atmosphere and stymies efforts to engage in honest scholarly discussion".
In his review of the book, As'ad AbuKhalil
As'ad AbuKhalil
As'ad AbuKhalil Arabic: أسعد أبو خليل is a Lebanese-American professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus....
states that Ibn Warraq collected old writings by Orientalists who have been long discredited and added that "the more rigid and biased the Orientalists, the better for Warraq".
Further reading
- The Quest for the Historical Muhammad, Prometheus BooksPrometheus BooksPrometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co-founded the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is currently the chairman of all three organizations. Prometheus Books publishes a range of books, including many...
(March 1, 2000) ISBN 1-57392-787-2