Did Muhammad Exist? Robert Spencer’s Marked Intervention in Islamic Studies
Cairo, Egypt
The Orthodox View of Muhammad
Much of the world became familiar with The Quran via an English translation. Yusuf Ali’s and N.J. Dawood’s editions are popular in bookstores throughout the world. They include short biographies of Muhammad’s life.
The following timeline is found in Dawood’s translation:
Chronological Table of the Main Events in the Life of Muhammad
c.570 Birth of Muhammad (his father having died a few months earlier)
576 Death of his mother Amina
595 Marriage to Khadijah
c.610 Beginning of Call
615 Flight of his followers to Ethiopia
619 Death of Khadijah
620 Muhammad’s reputed ‘Night Journey’ from Mecca to Jerusalem, and thence to the Seventh Heaven
622 The Hijra (Flight or Migration) of Muhammad and his followers to Medina, and the beginning of the Muslim era
624 Battle of Badr: the Quraysh defeated by the Muslims
625 Battle of Uhud: the Muslims defeated
626 The Jewish tribe of Al-Nadir crushed and expelled
627 ‘The War of the Ditch’-the Meccans expedition against the Muslims in Medina. Attackers driven off
627 The Jewish tribe of Qurayzah raided by Muhammad
628 The Treaty of Hudaybiyya, truce with the Quraysh, who recognize Muhammad’s right to proselytize without hindrance
629 The Jews of Khaybar put to the sword. Muhammad sends letters and messengers to the kings of Persia, Yemen, and Ethiopia and the Emperor Heraclius, inviting them to accept Islam
630 Truce broken by the Quraysh. Mecca taken by Muhammad-the entire population converted, and the Ka ‘bah established as the religious center of Islam
631 ‘The Year of Embassies’-Islam accepted by the Arabian tribes
632 Muhammad’s farewell pilgrimmage to Mecca
632, 8 June Death of Muhammad, three months after his return to Medina
(Dawood 7–8)
The preceding is the accepted biography for Muhammad’s life. This helps the reader because The Quran only mentions him by name four times. Dawood, however, never mentions his source material.
Yusuf Islam released an audio book entitled The Life of the Last Prophet. In it he gave a lengthy description of the Prophet’s life. He did not cite source material, however. It can be deduced, however, that Sahih al-Bukari was one of his staple sources. In his audio book, Mr. Islam stated the following,
“Muhammad was born in the harsh desert land of Arabia, some 600 years after Jesus (peace be upon him)”.
“Never had Muhammad learned to read or write, a skill that few could claim at the time.”
His audio book went on to describe the Prophet’s life from an Islamic perspective. In this respect, it was similar to that presented by N.J. Dawood and Yusuf Ali.
The present author has had numerous Arabic teachers recommend the film The Message. Many Muslims hold Moustapha Akkad’s film as an authentic representation of the Prophet’s life. It was made thirteen centuries after the subject’s reputed death.
Mr. Izi, of Passaic County Community College, stated,
“Muhammad believed that he was receiving the final revelation.”
The teacher gave a historical view of what no one doubted was a man who walked the pages of history; he was just as real as Caesar or Margaret Thatcher was.
For those who have spent time in Texas, the views of Evangelists, in regards to Prophet Muhammad, have been in stark contrast to those expressed by Islamic sources. One once told the present author,
“He was a very perverted man. He married a seven year old girl and consummated the marriage when she was eight.”
Neither Ali, Dawood,Islam, or Akkad mentioned anything like this in their biographical descriptions. The Evangelist, however, did not cite his source material, but he expressed no doubt that Muhammad once lived.
Then there is The Messenger, Muhammad (PBUH) by Sh. Sa’id Hawwa, published in 2000. In it, the Sheik stated the following,
The first thing that anyone noticed when he saw Muhammad [pbuh] was his remarkable handsomeness and self-confidence. This is supportedby the words of those who saw him [pbuh]. Jabir Ibn Samurah said: ‘I saw the Prophet [pbuh] on the night of a full moon. I kept looking alternately at the Prophet [pbuh] and then up at the moon and I found that Muhammad [pbuh] was in my eyes, better than the moon.’ [Narrated by Ad-Darimi and Al-Bayhaqi] (Hawwa 24).
Mr. Spencer’s Argument
In his groundbreaking book, Robert Spencer was guilty of revisionist history. Heretically, although quite convincingly, he argued against the accepted biography.
According to his book, no primary source material exists for Prophet Muhammad. There is no contemporary eyewitness account of Muhammad. He points out that the first biography came long after Muhammad was supposed to have died.
“The earliest biography of Muhammad was written by Ibn Ishaq (d.773), who wrote in the later part of the eighth century, at least 125 years after the death of his protagonist, in a setting in which legendary material about Muhammad was proliferating” (Spencer 19).
The Arab Conquests
The standard historical view of the Arab Conquests is that Muhammad unified the Arabs into an effective entity which went on to conquer much of the world. Mr. Spencer points out that not only is there not contemporaneous documentation from the Arabs naming either Muhammad, The Quran, or Islam, but that the silence is also found amongst the conquered peoples. A vast silence is found from Palestine, to India, to Spain. This is evidenced in the following quote:
“But the present circumstances are forcing me to think differently about our way of life, for why are {so many wars} being fought against us? Why do barbarian raids abound? Why are the troops of the Saracens attacking us? Why has there been so much destruction and plunder?”
Sophronicus, the patriarch of Jerusalem (Spencer 25).
The argument is presented that the Byzantines and the Persians were so weakened from fighting each other, that a power vacuum was created. The Arabs moved into that vacuum. The historical record has glaring omissions however: Muhammad, The Quran, and Islam.
Muhammad, Islam, The Quran, and Hadith: Creations of Caliph Abd al-Malik
By the end of the Seventh Century, the Arabs had amassed an empire that stretched from Spain to India. The other two superpowers of the day, the Byzantine and Persian Empires, were held together by religion. In the case of the Byzantines, it was Orthodox Christianity, and in the case of the Persians, it was Zoroastrianism. The Arab Empire needed a unifying force:
The historian Robert G. Hoyland concludes that “it was pressure from rebel factions” that induced Abd al-Malik and his successors “to proclaim Islam publicly as the ideological basis of the Arab state” (Spencer 60).
Mr. Spencer argues that the Caliph collected The Quran, began the collection of hadith, and invented Islam with Muhammad as its prophet out of political necessity.
Now, this is in complete contradiction with the accepted historical record. The Orthodox view is that Islam was already established before Abd al-Malik and his successors. Mr. Spencer argues, quite convincingly, that Hadith, for example, were invented:
“If the canonical account of the origins of Islam is true, then the material in the Hadith about Muhammad’s words and deeds existed, and presumably circulated in Muslim communities, for nearly two centuries before it was finally sifted, judged for authenticity, collected, and published. Yet there is no indication of the material’s presence” (Spencer 68).
For those who are aware that Shia Muslims recognize different Hadith from Sunnis, Mr. Spencer’s words were very enlightening,
“If a hadith could be forged, however, so could its chain of transmission. There are numerous indications that isnads were forged with the same alacrity with which matins-that is, the content of hadiths-were invented”
(Spencer 82).
Spencer’s Attack on Muhammad’s Traditional Biography
Speaking to many Muslims, in America, Kuwait, or Egypt, the present author has come to the conclusion that very few of them have ever read a biography of Muhammad any more than Christians have read a biography about Jesus. Contemplations naturally leaves one to ask, “What are historians basing their evidence on?” It turns out that the earliest biographical material, about Prophet Muhammad, was written over a century after his reputed death by Ibn Ishaq.
“What’s more, Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasull Allah-Biography of the Messenger of Allah-has not survived in its original form. It comes down to us today only in a later, abbreviated (although still quite lengthy) version compiled by another Islamic scholar, Ibn Hisham, who died in 834, sixty years after Ibn Ishaq, as well as in fragments quoted by other early Muslim writers, including the historian Muhammad ibn Jabrir at-Tabari (839–923)”
(Spencer 87).
Conclusion
For Muslims, as with devout members of any religion, it comes down to faith. A religion’s founder’s existence, much less the existence of miracles, or supernatural events, are often taken to be truth. Good historians, like scientists, however, rely on facts.
Robert Spencer’s Did Muhammad Exist? An Inquiry Into Islam’s Obscure Origins, reads like a detective story. In terms of religious studies it is comparable to Holy Blood, Holy Grail. In terms of Islamic Studies, it is unparalleled. Some Muslims may even find it more offensive than Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. Spencer’s book is different, however, in that it relies on facts. It would be interesting to see if other scholars, Islamic and non-Islamic, are able to refute his profound evidence. Mr. Spencer stated, to the present author,
“I don’t think the case can be challenged.”
Works Cited
Akkad, Moustapha. The Message. Filmco International Productions Inc., 1976.
Dawood, N.J. The Koran. Penguin Books, 1999.
Hawwa, Sh. Sa’id. The Messenger,Muhammad (PBUH). Dar Al-Salam, 2000.
Islam, Yusuf. The Life of the Last Prophet. Mountain of Light, 1995.
Marozzi, Justin. The Arab Conquests, The Spread of Islam and the First Caliphates. Apollo Books.
Spencer, Robert. Did Muhammad Exist? An Inquiry Into Islam’s Obscure Origins. ISI Books, 2012.
