The historicity of Muhammad concerns the historical authenticity of Muhammad. Some scholars advocate views that doubt the more general account presented by Muslim sources. Mawlid, Mawlid an-Nabi or Milad al-Nabi (Arabic: ‎) is the celebration of the birthday of Muhammad, the final prophet of Islam; also known as The Seal of the Prophets. Shia Muslims celebrate this day on the 17th of Rabi-ul-Awwal, coinciding with the birth date of the... Islamic poetry is rich in the praise of prophet Muhammad. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... This is a sub-article to Criticism of Islam and Non-Muslim view of Muhammad Muslims consider Muhammad to be the final and greatest prophet, the messenger of the final revelation that he called the Qur’an. ... Depictions of Muhammad, drawings of Muhammad are often contentious. ... For other persons named Muhammad, see Muhammad (name). ...

Sources for the historical Muhammad

Two different types of sources on Muhammad's life are available: 1. The Muslims sources written in Arabic which includes the Qur'an and the oral accounts of Muhammad's life as written down by later Muslims 2. The non-Muslim sources written in Greek, Syriac, Armenian and Hebrew by Jewish and Christian communities. ^[1] Each of these sources has a certain intrinsic value and importance. Among the three, the Qur'an is considered to be the most important source. The next in importance is the traditional accounts of Muhammad's life. The non-Muslim sources are valuable in corroboration of the Qur'anic and Muslim tradition statements. ^[2]

The Muslim sources include the Qur'an and the traditional accounts of Muhammad's life. The Qur'an has some, though very little, casual allusions to Muhammad's life. ^[3] The Qur'an however responds "constantly and often candidly to Muhammad's changing historical circumstances and contains a wealth of hidden data that are relevant to the task of the quest for the historical Muhammad." ^[4] The earliest surviving biographies are the two recensions of Ibn Ishaq's (d. 768) "Life of the Apostle of God", by Ibn Hisham (d. 834) and Yunus b. Bukayr(d.814-815). ^[4] According to Ibn Hisham, Ibn Ishaq wrote his biography some 120 to 130 years after Muhammad's death. Many, but not all, scholars accept the accuracy of these biographies although their accuracy is unascertainable. ^[3] After Ibn Ishaq, the most widely used biography of Muhammad is that of al-Waqidi's (d. 822) and then Ibn Sa'd's (d.844-5) biography of Muhammad. Al-Waqidi is often criticized by Muslims writers who claim that the author is unreliable.^[4] It should be noted that these biographies are hardly biographies in the modern sense. The writers did not want to record the life of Muhammad but rather to treat Muhammad's military expeditions as well as preserving stories about Muhammad, his sayings and traditional interpretations of verses of the Qur'an.^[4] The hadith collections, the accounts of the verbal and physical traditions of Muhammad, date from the several generations after death of Muhammad. Western academics view the hadith collections with caution as historical sources. ^[5] Ibn Ishaq (or ibn Ishaq), (d. ... Ibn Hisham, Abu Muhammad Abd al-Malik (d. ... al-Waqidi الواقدي (d. ... Hadith ( translit: ) are traditions relating to the words and deeds of Muhammad. ...

There are also few non-Muslim sources, according to S. A. Nigosian, all of which confirm existence of Muhammad. None of them date back to before 634 CE and much of the interesting ones dates back to some decades later. These sources he states confirm that Muhammad was a merchant and that his preaching revolved around the figure of Abraham. There are also confirmations of Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina. However he also notes that there are also some essential differences: some chronological differences and some related to Muhammad's attitude towards the Jews and Palestine. ^[3]

Historical Authenticity of the Qur'an

All, or most, of the Qur'an was apparently written down by Muhammad's companions while he was alive, but it was, then as now, primarily an orally related document, and the written compilation of the whole Qur'an in its definite form as we have it now was completed early after the death of Muhammad.^[6] The Qur'an is generally thought to represent what issued from Muhammad's mouth from 610-632 A.D. F.E. Peters states. "Few have failed to be convinced that what is in our copy of the Quran is, in fact, what Muhammad taught, and is expressed in his own words... To sum this up: the Quran is convincingly the words of Muhammad, perhaps even dictated by him after their recitation" ^[7] Peters argues that "The search for variants in the partial versions extant before the Caliph Uthman’s alleged recension in the 640s (what can be called the “sources” behind our text) has not yielded any differences of great significance." In fact, the source of ambiguity in the quest for historical Muhammad in western academic circles is uncertainty and the lack of knowledge about the pre-Islamic Arabia. ^[7] Francis Edward Peters is Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, History, and Religion at New York University. ...

However, professors Patricia Crone and Michael Cook challenge the traditional account of how the Qur'an was compiled, writing that "there is no hard evidence for the existence of the Koran in any form before the last decade of the seventh century." They also question the accuracy of some the Qur'an's historical accounts. Also, professor Gerd R. Puin's study of ancient Qur'an manuscripts led him to conclude that the Qur'an is a "cocktail of texts", some of which may have been present a hundred years before Muhammad. ^[8] However, while it is generally acknowledged that the work of Crone and Cook was a fresh approach in its reconstruction of early Islamic history, it has been dismissed as an experiment^[9] and criticised for its "...use (or abuse) of its Greek and Syriac sources..."^[10] Crone and Cook's controversial thesis is not widely accepted.^[11] Patricia Crone, Ph. ... Michael Cook is an American historian and scholar of Islamic history. ... Gerd Rüdiger Puin is a European scholar and the world foremost authority on Quranic paleography, the study and scholarly interpretation of ancient texts. ...

It should be however mentioned that there is a considerable debate in academia over the real chronology of the chapters of the Qur'an.^[12] Carole Hillenbrand states that there is still remaining tasks for the Orientalist Qur'anic scholars: Few Qur'anic scholars have worked on the epigraphy of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the luxury Qur'an recently discovered in the Yemen, now lodged in the House of Manuscript in Sana'a. The Carbon-14 test applied on the Qur'an discovered in Yemen dates it to 645-690AD with 95 percent accuracy. The dome of the Rock monument has a foundation inscription of 72/692. ^[12] The Dome of the Rock in the center of the Noble Sanctuary The Dome of the Rock (Arabic: مسجد قبة الصخرة, translit. ... Hebrew יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (Yerushalayim) (Standard) Yerushalayim or Yerushalaim Arabic commonly القـُدْس (Al-Quds); officially in Israel أورشليم القدس (Urshalim-Al-Quds) Name Meaning Hebrew: (see below), Arabic: The Holiness Government City District Jerusalem Population 724,000 (2006) Jurisdiction 123,000 dunams (123 km²) Mayor Uri Lupolianski Web Address www. ...

Historical Authenticity of the hadith literature

Western academics view the hadith collections with caution as historical sources. Bernard Lewis states that "the collection and scrutiny of Hadiths didn't take place until several generations" after Muhammad's death and that "during that period the opportunities and motives for falsification were almost unlimited."^[13] In addition to the problem of oral transmission for over a hundred years, there existed motives for deliberate distortion. Early Muslim scholars were also concerned that hadiths may have been fabricated, and thus developed a whole science of criticism to distinguish between genuine sayings and those that were errors or frauds. Modern historians point out that a chain of authorities may be easily forged and that rejection of some relators implies the victory of one thought over the others.^[14] It is argued that by the time the oral traditions were being collected, the Muslim community had grown and also fractured into rival sects and different schools of thought and each sect and school had its own, sometimes conflicting, traditions of what Muhammad and his companions had done and said. Hadith ( translit: ) are traditions relating to the words and deeds of Muhammad. ... Prof. ...

Muslim and non-Muslim scholars alike agree that there are some inauthentic traditions concerning the life of Muhammad in the hadith collections. Thus most of these traditions are acknowledged by Muslim clerical authorities to be weak. There are quite a few which are considered reliable and are agreed upon by all Muslim scholars. A very small minority called the "Qur'an Alone Muslims" consider all hadith as unreliable. Quran alone Muslims, Quranic Muslims or sometimes, anti-hadith Muslims are those Muslims who reject hadith, or recorded Islamic traditions, and follow the Quran, Islams sacred text, without any further additions. ...

Information on Muhammad

The neutrality and factual accuracy of this section are disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.

Besides the Islamic documents, there is almost no other information on Muhammad, especially about the Meccan period of his life.^{[citation needed][verification needed]} What we do know about him is mainly from the Qur'an and the commentaries on the Qur'an. Modern historians are obliged to handle this information cautiously. Muhammad is not mentioned in known historical documents of neighbouring peoples, despite the fact that they otherwise left voluminous historical, religious and administrative writings. Also puzzling is the work of the late Yehuda Nevo ^[15], when he examined early Arabic inscriptions in the Negev desert found no reference to Muhammad. Image File history File links Circle-question-red. ... Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ...

The word 'Muhammad' occurs only four times in the Qur'an, and it isn't even clear if this is meant to be an individuals's name at all^{[citation needed]}: 'mohammad(un)' may also be a verb form in these contexts^{[citation needed]}. Indeed, Karl-Heinz Ohling^[16] comes to the conclusion that the person of Mohammed wasn't central to early Islam (up to the Ummayad caliphate) at all, and that at this very early stage Islam was in fact an Arabic Christian sect, which had objections to the concept of the trinity, and that the later hadith and biographies are in large part legends, instrumental in severing the Christian roots and building a full-blown new religion. Most biographies of Muhammad appear to be meant to add context to Qur'anic verses^{[17] [18]}
The Umayyad Dynasty (Arabic الأمويون / بنو أمية umawiyy; in Turkish, Emevi) was the first dynasty of caliphs of the Prophet Muhammad who were not closely related to Muhammad himself, though they were of the same Meccan tribe, the... For other uses, see Trinity (disambiguation). ... A legend (Latin, legenda, things to be read) is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude. ...

Historical view

A translator of one of the works of Ibn Ishaq puts the historical view on Muhammad into words:
Ibn Ishaq (or ibn Ishaq), (d. ...

At face value we do know much about Muhammad, more than any other person from Antiquity. The oldest Muslims already discussed whether certain narrated stories have truly happened or not. Many Muslims believe that the great number of traditions broadly draw the big picture of the Prophet. However, western scholars consider these sources not reliable any more. Newer orientalists don't believe that the factual story of the life of the Prophet can be reconstructed. We can say with certainty that he existed. (..)
Various facts and considerations have undermined the historicity of the sources. Hardly any source text is dated with certainty in the first century of Islam. Of many texts there are different versions that contain contradictory data. Non-Islamic source material, that sometimes can be dated very early gives another picture. ^[19]

The attempts to distinguish between the historical elements from the unhistorical elements has not been very successful and has not provided more reliable information about the person of Muhammad and which role he played in Islam. Harald Motzski therefore states:

At present, the study of Muhammad, the founder of the Muslim community, is obviously caught in a dilemma. On the one hand, it is not possible to write a historical biography of the Prophet without being accused of using the sources uncritically, while on the other hand, when using the sources critically, it is simply not possible to write such a biography ^[20]

Another article on this subject [1] also ends with the conclusion that maybe we have to wait on further research on the early sources and the discussion about them.

References

1. ^ Islam, S. A. Nigosian, p.6 , Indiana University Press
2. ^ Islam, S. A. Nigosian, p.7 , Indiana University Press
3. ^ ^{a b c} Islam, S. A. Nigosian, p.6 , Indiana University Press
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Encyclopedia of Islam, Muhammad
5. ^ Lewis (1993), pp.33-34
6. ^ The Cambridge History of Islam, p.32
7. ^ ^{a b} Peters, F. E. "The Quest of the Historical Muhammad." International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 23, No. 3. (Aug., 1991), pp. 291-315.
8. ^ Patricia Crone, Michael Cook, and Gerd R. Puin as quoted in Toby Lester. "What Is the Koran?", The Atlantic Monthly, January 1999.
9. ^ van Ess, "The Making Of Islam", Times Literary Supplement, Sep. 8 1978, p. 998
10. ^ Stephen Humphreys, Islamic History, (Princeton, 1991) pp. 84-85
11. ^ (1997) Political Islam: Essays from Middle East Report. Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, p. 47. 
12. ^ ^{a b} Carole Hillenbrand, The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 1, p.329
13. ^ Lewis (1993), pp.33-34
14. ^ Peters (1991), pp.291-315
15. ^ Yehuda D. Nevo, "Towards A Prehistory Of Islam", Jerusalem Studies In Arabic And Islam, 1994, Vol.17, pp. 125-126.
16. ^ Karl-Heinz Ohlig, Der frühe Islam, 2007, ISBN 3-89930-090-4
17. ^ Hans Jansen, De historische Muhammad. De Mekkaanse verhalen(The historical Muhammad, The Meccan stories), 2005, ISBN 90-295-6282-X. Reviews in the Dutch newspapers NRC, RD and Trouw
18. ^ Karl-Heinz Ohlig & Gerd-R. Puin, Die dunklen Anfänge, 2005, ISBN 3-89930-128-5. Twelve scientist from different countries are expressing there doubts in different languages about the traditional story about the genesis of Islam.
19. ^ Wim Raven, Introduction on a translation of Islamic texts into Dutch by Ibn Ishaq, Het leven van Muhammad (The life of Muhammad), ISBN 90-5460-056-X.
    More information about the comparison between research on the historicity of Muahmmed and Jesus and the problems researchers encounter, see for example F. E. Peters, The Quest of the Historical Muhammad, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 23, No. 3. (Aug., 1991), pp. 291-315, with many notes.
20. ^ Quote from S. A. Nigosian, Islam: Its History, Teaching, and Practices, p. 6. ISBN 0-253-21627-3. Partially accessible via books.google.com

The Encyclopedia of Islam (EI) is a scholarly encyclopedia covering all aspects of Islamic civilization and history. ... F.E. Peters is Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, History, and Religion at New York University. ... The Quest of the Historical Muhammad is often referenced essay by Francis Edwards Peters, written in August 1991,International Journal of Middle East Studies. ...

See also

• Quest for the Historical Muhammad
• Muhammad
• Origin and development of the Qur'an