Is The Quran The Word of God?
Is The Quran The Word of God?
Is The Quran The Word of God?
INTRODUCTION
[A] THE PROBLEMS WITH THE ISLAMIC TRADITIONS
(1) THE SOURCES
(2) LATE DATES
(a) Writing
(b) Age
(c) Scripts
(3) CREDIBILITY
(4) CONTRADICTIONS
(5) SIMILARITIES
(6) PROLIFERATION
(7) ISNAD
(8) STORYTELLING
[B] AN INTERNAL CRITIQUE OF THE QUR’AN
(1) THE QUR'AN'S MAKEUP
a) Inimitability
b) Structural weaknesses
c) Literary defects
d) Universality
e) Interpolation
(2) TALMUDIC SOURCES IN THE QUR’AN
a) The story of Cain and Abel
b) The story of Abraham
c) The Story of Solomon and Sheba
(3) SCIENTIFIC PECULIARITIES IN THE QUR’AN
(4) A POSSIBLE SOLUTION (“Salvation History”)
[C] AN EXTERNAL CRITIQUE OF THE QUR’AN
[1] HIJRA
[2] QIBLA
[3] THE JEWS
[4] MECCA.
[5] DOME OF THE ROCK
[6] MUHAMMAD
[7] “MUSLIM” & “ISLAM”
[8] QUR'AN
[D] CAN WE USE THESE NON-MUSLIM SOURCES?
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES CITED
INTRODUCTION:
In August of 1995 I was invited to debate the motion, “Is the Qur’an the Word of God?”
with Dr. Jamal Badawi. The debate took place at Trinity College, Cambridge, and after our
papers had been presented the debate was opened to the floor for an hour of questions from both
the Muslims and Christians present. Below is the content of the paper which I gave at the
debate, as well as further material which I used in the question and answer period, and further
data which has come out since the time of the debate. Because of the interest shown in the topic,
we have put this paper along with ten other apologetical papers, and certain Muslim rebuttals to
the material, as well as a number of the popular 99 Truth Tracts on a web-site, on the internet
(please use the following call number to access them: http://www.domini.org/debate/home.htm).
Our hope is that with the material on this web-site the debate can continue around the world, and
help to enliven the dialogue already begun by the Cambridge debate.
(Note: I have tried to footnote those statements which could prove to be contentious, or
which would stimulate the readers to look for further data. I have used the Harvard model,
which commences with the author’s name, followed by the date of publication, and page
number). Let us then begin our study.
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Islam claims that the Qur'an is not only God's Word, but that it is the final revelation
given to humanity. It comes from the “Mother of all books” according to sura 43:2-4. Muslims
maintain that the Qur'an is an exact word-for-word copy of God's final revelation which is found
on the original tablets that have always existed in heaven. They point to sura 85:21-22 which
says, “Nay this is a glorious Qur'an, (inscribed) in a tablet preserved.” Islamic scholars contend
that this passage refers to the tablets which were never created. They believe that the Qur'an is
an identical copy of the eternal heavenly book, even so far as the punctuation, titles and divisions
of chapters are concerned.
According to Muslim tradition, these ‘revelations’ began to be sent down (Tanzil or
Nazil) (sura 17:85), to the lowest of the seven heavens in the month of Ramadan, during the
night of power or destiny (lailat al Qadr) (Pfander, 1910:262). From there they were revealed to
Muhammad in installments, as need arose, via the angel Gabriel (sura 25:32). Consequently,
every letter and every word is free from any human influence, which gives the Qur'an an aura of
authority, even holiness, and with such, its integrity.
Most westerners have accepted these claims from Muslims at face value. They have
never had the ability to argue their veracity, because the claims could neither be proved nor
disproved, as their authority was derived solely from the Qur'an itself (dispelling any attempt to
wrest from the pages of the Bible fulfilled prophecies of Deuteronomy 18, John 14, 16; and
perhaps others).
There has also been a reticence to question the Qur'an and the prophet due to the adverse
response directed upon those who were brave enough to attempt it in the past. The fact is that for
too long westerners have been content to assume that the Muslims had evidence and data to
substantiate their claims.
It is only now, as secular scholars of Islam (known as “Orientalists”) re-examine the
Islamic sources, that evidence is being uncovered which puts into question much of what we
have been led to believe concerning Muhammad and ‘his revelation,’ the Qur'an.
The findings of these scholars indicate that the Qur'an was not revealed to just one man,
but was a compilation of later redactions (or editions) formulated by a group of men, over the
course of a few hundred years (Rippin 1985:155; and 1990:3,25, 60). In other words, the Qur'an
which we read today is not that which was in existence in the mid-seventh century, but was more
than likely a product of the eighth and ninth centuries (Wansbrough 1977:160-163). It was at
this time, the Orientalists say, particularly in the ninth century, that Islam took on its classical
identity and became that which is recognizable today. Consequently, the formative stage of
Islam, they contend, was not within the lifetime of Muhammad but evolved over a period of
200-300 years (Humphreys 1991:71, 83-89).
Source material for this period, however, is sparse. Essentially the only sources which
had been available to the historians were Muslim sources. What is more, outside the ‘Qur'an,’
the sources are all late. Prior to 750 A.D. we have no verifiable Muslim documents which can
give us a window into this formative period of Islam (Wansbrough 1978:58-59). Nothing exists
with which to corroborate ‘Muslim Tradition’ material (that is, Islamic history based on their
traditions). Later documents simply draw upon earlier documents, which no longer exist today
(if indeed they existed at all) (Crone 1987:225-226; Humphreys 1991:73). This classical period
(around 800 A.D.) describes the earlier period, but from its own viewpoint, much like an adult,
writing about their childhood will tend to remember those areas which were pleasant. Thus, the
account is coloured, and biased, and as such cannot be accepted as authentic by historical
scholars (refer to Crone's studies on the problems of the ‘traditions,’ especially those which were
dependent on local storytellers, in Meccan Trade....1987, pp.203-230 and Slaves on Horses,
1980, pp. 3-17).
Consequently, the demarcation line between what the historian will accept and that which
Muslim Traditions maintain is growing further apart for the following reasons: Islam, according
to orthodox Muslim scholars, gives complete credence to divine intervention for its revelation.
Muslim Tradition asserts that Allah sent down his revelation to Muhammad via the angel Gabriel
(Jibril) over a period of twenty-two years (610-632 A.D.), in which time many of the laws and
traditions which delineate that which we define as Islam were formulated and worked out.
Yet it is this scenario which secular historians are balking at today, as it presupposes that
in the early seventh century, Islam, a religion of immense sophistication, of intricate laws and
traditions was formulated in a ‘backward’ nomadic culture and became fully functional in only
twenty two years.
The Hijaz (central Arabia) before that time was hardly known in the civilized world.
Even the later traditions refer to this period as Jahiliyya (or period of ignorance, implying its
backwardness). Arabia before Muhammad did not have an urbanized culture, nor could it boast
a sophisticated infrastructure needed to create, let alone maintain the scenario painted by the later
traditions for the early period of Islam (Rippin 1990:3-4). So, how did it come together so neatly
and so quickly? There is no historical precedence for such a scenario. One would expect such a
degree of sophistication over a period of one or two centuries, provided there were other sources,
such as neighbouring cultures from which traditions and laws could be borrowed, but certainly
not within an unsophisticated desert environment, and certainly not within a period of a mere 22
years.
Secular historians cannot simply accept the position posited by the later traditions that
this all came about by divine revelation, as they maintain that all of history must be substantiated
with historical evidence. They are forced to stand back and ask how we know what we know,
where the information originates, and whether it stands up to an “unbiased” or neutral historical
analysis.
Historians had, therefore, been pushed into a dilemma. Due to their secular
presuppositions they could not base their research on the existence of God, yet they could not
throw out the Muslim Traditions (which naturally presuppose His existence), because they were
the best and at times only documents available.
That is, until recently.
The new crop of historical experts on Islam (such as Dr. John Wansbrough, Michael
Cook [both from SOAS], Patricia Crone formerly from Oxford now lecturing at Cambridge,
Yehuda Nevo from the University of Jerusalem, Andrew Rippin from Canada, and others), while
admitting that there is a mystery concerning the question of divine intervention, are now looking
more closely at other sources concerning the Qur'an to ascertain clues to its origins. It is these
sources which are now beginning to reveal evidence for alternative explanations to the
beginnings of a religion which today encompasses 1/5th of the world's population, and is
growing faster then any other major religion.
It is their work, therefore, that I would like to use, to understand better a possible origin
for the Qur'an. It is their material, and others, which, I feel, Muslim apologists will need to face
seriously in the years ahead, as much of this new data puts into serious doubt many of the claims
forwarded by traditional Muslim scholars concerning their holy book, the Qur'an, and their
prophet, Muhammad. Let us, then begin our analysis by taking a look at the sources for much of
what we know concerning Islam, its prophet and its book.
(3) CREDIBILITY:
There is much discussion not only amongst the secular historians, but within Islam as
well, even today, as to the credibility of the hadith compilations.
As we noted earlier, the bulk of our historical texts on early Islam were compiled
between 800-950 A.D. (Humphreys 1991:71). All later material used these compilations as their
standard, while earlier material simply cannot be corroborated with any degree of authenticity
(Humphreys 1991:71-72). It could be that the earlier traditions were no longer relevant, and so
were left to disintegrate, or were destroyed. We don’t know. What we do know is that these
compilers most likely took their material from collections compiled within the decades around
800 A.D., and not from any documents which were written in the seventh century, and certainly
not from the person of Muhammad or his companions (Humphreys 1991:73, 83; Schacht
1949:143-145; Goldziher 1889-90:72).
We also know that many of their compilations were paraphrases of earlier Akhbars
(anecdotes and phrases) which they considered to be acceptable, though what their criterion was
is still a mystery (Humphreys 1991:83). It now seems obvious that the early ninth century
“schools of law” authenticated their own agenda by asserting that their doctrines came initially
from the companions of the prophet and then from the prophet himself (Schacht 1949:153-154).
Schacht maintains that the origin for this undertaking was the scholar al-Shafi'i (died in
820 A.D.). It was he who stipulated that all traditions of law must be traced back to Muhammad
in order to retain their credibility. As a result the great mass of legal traditions perpetrated by the
classical schools of law invoking the authority of the prophet originated during the time of Shafi'i
and later, and consequently express later Iraqi doctrines, and not those from early Arabia
(Schacht 1949:145). It is this agenda imposed by each school of law concerning the choice of
the traditions in the ninth and tenth centuries which many now believe invalidates the
authenticity for the hadith.
Wansbrough agrees with Humphreys and Schacht when he maintains that literary
records, although presenting themselves as contemporary with the events they describe, actually
belonged to a period well after such events, which suggests that they had been written according
to later points of view in order to fit the purposes and agendas of that later time (Rippin
1985:155-156). Take the example of the Shi'ites. Their agenda is indeed quite transparent,
as they maintain that of the 2,000 valid hadith the majority (1,750) were derived from Ali, the
son-in-law of the prophet, to whom all Shi'ites look for inspiration. To a casual observer this
looks rather suspect. If the premise for authenticity for the Shi'ites was purely political, then
why should we not deduce the same premise was likewise at work with the other compilers of
the traditions?
The question we must ask is whether or not there is an underlying “grain of historical
truth” which is left for us to use? Schacht and Wansbrough are both sceptical on this point
(Schacht 1949:147-149; Wansbrough 1978:119).
Patricia Crone takes the argument one step further by contending that credibility for the
traditions has been lost due to the bias of each individual compiler. She states,
The works of the first compilers such as Abu Mikhnaf, Sayf
b.`Umar, `Awana, Ibn Ishaq and Ibn al-Kalbi are accordingly
mere piles of disparate traditions reflecting no one personality,
school, time or place: as the Medinese Ibn Ishaq transmits
traditions in favour of Iraq, so the Iraqi Sayf has traditions
against it. And all the compilations are characterized by the
inclusion of material in support of conflicting legal and
doctrinal persuasions. (Crone 1980:10)
In other words, local schools of law simply formed different traditions, relying on
local conventions and the opinions of local scholars (Rippin 1990:76-77). In time scholars
became aware of this diversity and saw the need to unify Muslim law. The solution was
found by appealing to Prophetic tradition, which would have authority over a scholar's ra'y
(opinion). Hence the traditions attributed to the Prophet began to multiply from around 820
A.D. onwards (Schacht 1949:145; Rippin 1990:78).
Take the example of the Sira, which gives us the best material on the prophet's life. It
seems to take some of its information from the Qur'an. Although Isnads are used to
determine authenticity (which we now know to be suspect, as we shall see later), its authority
is dependent on the authority of the Qur'an, whose credibility is now in doubt as well (also to
be discussed in a later section). According to G. Levi Della Vida, in his article on the Sira,
the formation of the Sira down to the period of its reduction to its “canonical” form seems to
have taken place along the following lines:
The continually increasing veneration for the person of
Muhammad provoked the growth around his figure of a legend
of hagiographical (idolizing) character in which alongside of
more-or-less corrupt historical memories there gathered
episodes modelled on Jewish or Christian religious tradition
(perhaps also Iranian, although to a much lesser degree). (Levi
Della Vida 1934:441)
He goes on to explain that this material became ,
organized and systematized in the schools of the Medina
muhaddithun, through a `midrash,' subtle and full of
combinations, made up of passages from the Qur'an in which
exegesis had delighted to discover allusions to very definite
events in the life of the Prophet. It was in this way that the
history of the Medina period was formed. (Levi Della Vida
1934:441)
We are therefore left with documents which hold little credibility (Crone 1987:213-
215). Even earlier material helps us little. The Maghazi, which are stories of the prophet's
battles and campaigns, are the earliest Muslim documents which we possess. They should
have given us the best snapshot of that time, yet they tell us little concerning the prophet's life
or teachings. In fact, oddly enough nowhere in these documents is there a veneration of
Muhammad as a prophet!
(4) CONTRADICTIONS:
A further problem with the traditions are the contradictions, confusions and
inconsistencies as well as anomalies which are evident throughout. For instance Crone asks,
“What do we do with Baladhuri's statement that the Qibla (direction for prayer) in the first
Kufan mosque was to the west...that there are so many Fatimas, and that `Ali is sometimes
Muhammad's brother? It is a tradition in which information means nothing and leads
nowhere.” (Crone 1980:12)
Certain authors wrote reports which contradict other reports which they had
themselves written (Humphreys 1991:73; Crone 1987:217-218). Al-Tabari, for instance,
often gives different, and sometimes conflicting accounts of the same incidents (Kennedy
1986:362). The question of how far al-Tabari edited his material therefore remains an open
one. Did he select the akhbar (short narratives) which he used in order to develop and
illustrate major themes about the history of the Islamic state? We don't know.
Ibn Ishaq informs us that Muhammad stepped into a political vacuum upon entering
Yathrib (Medina), but then later tells us that he snatched away authority from a well-
established ruler there (Ibn Hisham ed.1860: 285, 385, 411). Ibn Ishaq also relates that the
Jews in Medina were supportive of their Arab neighbours, and yet were molested by them
(Ibn Hisham ed.1860:286, 372, 373, 378). Which of these contradictory accounts are we to
believe? As Crone points out, “the stories are told with complete disregard for what the
situation in Medina may or may not have been like in historical fact.” (Crone 1987:218)
Another difficulty are the seeming contradictory accounts given by different
compilers (Rippin 1990:10-11). Many are variations on a common theme. Take for example
the 15 different accounts of Muhammad’s encounter with a representative of a non-Islamic
religion who recognizes him as a future prophet (Crone 1987:219-220). Some traditions
place this encounter during his infancy (Ibn Hisham ed.1860:107), others when he was nine
or twelve years old (Ibn Sa’d 1960:120), while others say he was twenty-five at the time (Ibn
Hisham ed.1860:119). Some traditions maintain that he was seen by Ethiopian Christians
(Ibn Hisham ed.1860:107), or by Jews (‘Abd al-Razzaq 1972: 318), while others maintain it
was a seer or a Kahin at either Mecca, or Ukaz or Dhu’l-Majaz (Ibn Sa’d 1960:166; ‘Abd al-
Razzaq 1972:317; Abu Nu’aym 1950:95, 116f). Crone concludes that what we have here is
nothing more than “fifteen equally fictitious versions of an event that never took place.”
(Crone 1987:220)
Consequently it is difficult to ascertain which reports are authentic, and which are to
be discarded. This is a problem which confounds Muslims and orientalists even today.
(5) SIMILARITIES:
On the other hand, many of the traditions reflect the same material as the others,
implying the recycling of the same body of data down through the centuries without any
reference to where it originated.
Take for example al-Tabari's history of the life of the prophet which is much the same
as Ibn Hisham's Sira, and much the same as his “Commentary on the Qur'an,” which is much
the same as Bukhari's Hadith collection. Because of their similarities at such a late date, they
seem to point to a singular source early in the ninth century, from which all the others took
their material (Crone 1980:11). Does this suggest a “canon” of material authorized by the
Ulama? Possibly, but we can never be sure.
(6) PROLIFERATION:
A further problem with these traditions is that of proliferation (Rippin 1990:34). As
we have mentioned, these works begin to appear not earlier than the eighth century (200-300
years after the event to which they refer). Then suddenly they proliferate by the hundreds of
thousands. Why? How can we explain this proliferation?
Take the instance of the death of `Abdallah, the father of Muhammad. The compilers
of the mid to late eighth century (Ibn Ishaq and Ma'mar) were agreed that ‘Abdallah had died
early enough to leave Muhammad an orphan; but as to the specific details of his death, ‘God
knew best’ (Cook 1983:63).
Further on into the ninth century more seems to be known. Waqidi, who wrote fifty
years later tells us not only when ‘Abdallah died, but how he died, where he died, what his
age was, and the exact place of his burial. According to Michael Cook, “this evolution in the
course of half a century from uncertainty to a profusion of precise detail suggests that a fair
amount of what Waqidi knew was not knowledge.” (Cook 1983:63-65) This is rather typical
of Waqidi. He was always willing to give precise dates, locations, names where Ibn Ishaq
had none (Crone 1987:224). “It is no wonder,” Crone retorts,
that scholars are so fond of Waqidi: where else does one find
such wonderfully precise information about everything one
wishes to know? But given that this information was all
unknown earlier to Ibn Ishaq, its value is doubtful in the
extreme. And if spurious information accumulated at this rate
in the two generations between Ibn Ishaq and Waqidi, it is hard
to avoid the conclusion that even more must have accumulated
in the three generations between the Prophet and Ibn Ishaq.”
(Crone 1987:224)
Consequently, without any real supervision, or the desire to present any documentation the
compilers became more than what their office permitted.
Muslim scholars who are aware of this proliferation excuse it by contending that the
Muslim religion was beginning to stabilize at this time. Thus, it was natural that the literary
works would also begin to appear more numerous. Earlier written material, they say, was no
longer relevant for the new Islam, and consequently was either discarded or lost (Humphreys
1991:72).
While there is some credence to this theory, one would assume that even a few of
these documents would have remained, tucked away in some library, or within someone's
collection. Yet there is nothing, and this is suspicious.
Of more importance, however, is whether the “Uthmanic Qur'anic text” (the final
recension, supposedly compiled by Zaid ibn Thabit in 646-650 A.D., and the source for our
contemporary Qur'an) would be included in this scenario? Certainly it would have been
considered to be of relevance, for, as we have previously mentioned, according to tradition all
of the other copies and codices were burned by the Caliph Uthman soon after, leaving this
one text, from which four copies were made. Where are these copies today? The earliest
manuscript segments of the Qur'an which we possess are not dated earlier then 690-750 A.D.!
(Schimmel 1984:4) Are those who hold this position willing to admit that these four copies
were also discarded because they were no longer relevant for the new Islam?
Furthermore, the sheer number of Hadith which suddenly appear in the ninth century
creates a good deal of scepticism. It has been claimed that by the mid-ninth century there
were over 600,000 hadith, or early stories about the prophet. In fact, tradition has it that they
were so numerous that the ruling Caliph asked Al Bukhari, the well-known scholar, to collect
the true sayings of the prophet out of the 600,000. Obviously, even then there was doubt
concerning the veracity for many of these Hadith.
Bukhari never spelled out the criteria which guided his choice, except for vague
pronouncements of “unreliability” or “unsuitability” (Humphreys 1991:73). In the end, he
retained only 7,397 of the hadith, or roughly a mere 1.2%!. However, allowing for repetition,
the net total was 2,762, gathered, it is said, from the 600,000 (A.K.C. 1993:12). What this
means is that of the 600,000 hadith 592,603 of them were false, and had to be scrapped!
Thus nearly 99% were considered spurious! This beggars belief!
Ironically it is just this sort of scenario which creates doubt about the authenticity of
any of the hadith. Where did these 600,000 sayings come from in the first place if so many
were considered to be spurious? Were any of them written down? Do we have any evidence
of their existence before this time? None at all!
The fact that they suddenly materialized at this period (in the ninth century, or 250
years after the event to which they refer), and just as suddenly were rejected, seems to
suggest that they were created or adopted at this time, and not at an earlier date. This echoes
the statement made earlier by Schacht concerning the need by compilers of the ninth century
to authenticate borrowed laws and traditions by finding a link with the Prophet. In their haste
they borrowed much too liberally, which in turn, forced the Ulama to step in and canonize
those hadith which they considered supported their agenda.
That still leaves us with the problem of how they decided which hadith were authentic
and which were not.
(7) ISNAD:
To answer this problem, Muslim scholars maintain that the primary means for
choosing between the authentic and the spurious hadith was a process of oral transmission
called in Arabic Isnad. This, Muslims contend, was the science which was used by Bukhari,
Tabari and other ninth and tenth century compilers to authenticate their compilations. In
order to know who was the original author of the numerous hadith at their disposal, the
compilers provided a list of names which supposedly traced back the authorship through time
to the prophet himself. Because of its importance for our discussion, this science of Isnad
needs to be explained in greater detail:
In order to give credibility to a hadith, or a narrative, a list of names was attached to
each document supposedly designating through whom the hadith had been passed down. It
was a chain of names of transmitters, stating, ‘I received this from ____ who obtained it from
____ who got it from a companion of the prophet.’ (Rippin 1990:37-39)
While we in the West find oral transmission suspect, it was well developed within the
Arab world, and the vehicle for passing down much of their history. The problem with oral
transmission is that by its very nature, it can be open to corruption as it has no written
formula or documentation to corroborate it. Thus, it can easily be manipulated according to
the agenda of the orator (much like a child's game of “Chinese Whispers”).
For the early Muslim, however, an Isnad was considered essential, as it gave the
signature of those from whom the document came. Our concern is how we can know
whether the names were authentic? Did the person to whom the Isnad is credited really say
what he is credited as saying?
A compiler, in order to gain credibility for his writings, would list historically well-
known individuals in his Isnad, similar to the custom we use today of requesting noteworthy
individuals to write forwards in our books. The larger the list within the chain the greater its
credibility. But unlike those who write forwards today, the ninth century compilers had no
documentation to prove that their sources were authentic. Those individuals whose names
they borrowed were long dead, and could not vouch for what they had allegedly said.
Curiously, “isnads had a tendency to ‘grow backwards.’ In certain early texts a
statement will be found attributed to a caliph of the Umayyad dynasty, for example, or will
even be unattributed, as in the case of certain legal maxims; elsewhere, the same statements
will be found in the form of hadith reports with fully documented isnads going back to
Muhammad or one of his companions.” (Rippin 1990:38)
It therefore seems likely that isnads were used to give authority to certain hadith
which “clearly are concerned with matters of interest to the community in generations after
Muhammad but which have been framed as predictions made by him.” (Rippin 1990:38)
These isnads and the hadith which they supposedly authenticate merely testify to what the
exegetes chose to believe rather than to what can be deemed as historical facts, which in turn
weakens that which they sought to communicate (Crone 1987:214).
It is rather obvious, therefore, that the isnads rather then corroborating and
substantiating the material which we find in the Muslim traditions, present instead an even
greater problem. We are left with the realisation that without any continuous transmission
between the seventh and eighth centuries, the traditions can only be considered a snapshot of
the later ninth and tenth centuries and nothing more (Crone 1987:226).
What is more, the science of Isnad, which set about to authenticate those very Isnads
only began in the tenth century, long after the Isnads in question had already been compiled
(Humphreys 1991:81), and so have little relevance for our discussion. Consequently, because
it is such an inexact science, the ‘rule of thumb’ for most historians today is: ‘the larger the
list, which includes the best known historical names, the more suspect its authenticity.’ We
will never know, therefore, whether the names listed in the Isnads ever gave or received the
information with which they are credited.
(8) STORYTELLING:
Possibly the greatest argument against the use of Muslim Tradition as a source is the
problem of transmission. To better understand the argument we need to delve into the
hundred or so years prior to Ibn Ishaq (765A.D.), and after the death of Muhammad in (632
A.D.), since, “the Muslim `rabbis' to whom we owe [Muhammad's] biography were not the
original memory banks of the Prophet's tradition.” (Crone 1980:5)
According to Patricia Crone, a Danish researcher in this field of source criticism, we
know little about the original material, as the traditions have been reshaped by a progression
of storytellers over a period of a century and a half (Crone 1980:3). These storytellers were
called Kussas. It is believed that they compiled their stories using the model of the Biblical
legends which were quite popular in and around the Byzantine world at that time, as well as
stories of Iranian origin. From their stories there grew up a literature which belonged to the
historical novel rather than to history (Levi Della Vida 1934:441).
Within these stories were examples of material which were transmitted by oral
tradition for generations before they were written down. They were of two kinds: Mutawatir
(material handed down successively) and Mashhur (material which was well-known or
widely known) (Welch 1991:361). Patricia Crone, in her book: Meccan Trade and the Rise
of Islam, maintains that most of what the later compilers received came from these story-
tellers (Kussas) who were traditionally the real repositories of history:
...it was the storytellers who created the [Muslim] tradition.
The sound historical tradition to which they are supposed to
have added their fables simply did not exist. It is because the
storytellers played such a crucial role in the formation of the
tradition that there is so little historicity to it. As storyteller
followed upon storyteller, the recollection of the past was
reduced to a common stock of stories, themes, and motifs that
could be combined and recombined in a profusion of
apparently factual accounts. Each combination and
recombination would generate new details, and as spurious
information accumulated, genuine information would be lost.
In the absence of an alternative tradition, early scholars were
forced to rely on the tales of storytellers, as did Ibn Ishaq,
Waqidi, and other historians. It is because they relied on the
same repertoire of tales that they all said such similar things.
(Crone 1987:225)
Because the earliest written accounts of Muhammad's life were not written until the
late Umayyid period (around 750 A.D.), “the religious tradition of Islam,” Crone believes, “is
thus a monument to the destruction rather than the preservation of the past,” (Crone 1980:7)
and “it is [this] tradition where information means nothing and leads nowhere.” (Crone
1980:12) Therefore, it stands to reason that Muslim Tradition is simply not trustworthy as it
has had too much development during the course of its transmission from one generation to
the next. In fact, we might as well repeat what we have already stated: the traditions are
relevant only when they speak on the period in which they were written, and nothing more.
----------
These materials, consequently, create immense problems for the historian who may
only consider them authentic if there is observable data which can be objectively assessed to
be derived from outside the secondary sources themselves, such as the primary sources from
which these traditions were obtained. Yet we have few if any to refer to. The question,
therefore, must be asked, ‘Did the primary sources ever exist, and if so would we be able to
recognize them, using the secondary material at our disposal?’
There are so many difficulties in the traditions: the late dates for the earliest
manuscripts, the loss of credibility due to a later agenda, and the contradictions which are
evident when one reads them, as well as the proliferation due to aggressive redaction by the
storytellers, and the inexact science of Isnad used for corroboration. Is it any wonder that
historians, while obliged to refer to the material presented by Muslim Tradition (because of
its size and scope), prefer to find alternative explanations to the traditionally accepted ideas
and theories, while looking elsewhere for further source material? Having referred earlier to
the Qur'an, it makes sense, therefore, to return to it, as there are many Muslim scholars who
claim that it is the Qur'an itself which affords us the best source for its own authority, and not
the traditions.
While Muslims hold a high view for all Scriptures, including the Old and New
Testaments, they demand a unique and supreme position for the Qur'an, claiming its
ascendancy over all other scriptures, because, according to them, initially, it was never writ-
ten down by men and so was never tainted with men’s thoughts or styles. For reasons such as
this it is often referred to as the “Mother of Books” (taken from sura 43:3-4).
Targum of Jonathan-ben-Uzziah
Adam and Eve, sitting by the corpse, wept not knowing what to do, for they had as yet no
knowledge of burial. A raven came up, took the dead body of its fellow, and having
scratched at the earth, buried it thus before their eyes. Adam said, `Let us follow the example
of the raven,' so taking up Abel's body, buried it at once.
Apart from the contrast between who buried who, the two stories are otherwise
uncannily similar. We can only conclude that it was from here that Muhammad, or a later
compiler obtained his story. Thus we find that a Jewish fable, a myth, is repeated as
historical fact in the Qur'an.
Yet that is not all, for when we continue in our reading of sura 5, in the following aya
32 (on the left), we find a further proof of plagiarism from apocryphal Jewish literature; this
time the Jewish Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5 (on the right).
There is no connection between the previous verse (aya 31) and that which we find in
aya 32 (above). What does the murder of Abel by Cain have to do with the slaying or saving
of the whole people? Nothing. Ironically, this aya 32, in fact, supports the basis of the Old
Testament hope for the finished work of Jesus, who was to take away the sins of the world
(see John 1:29). Yet, it doesn't flow from the verse which preceded it. So why is it here?
If we were to turn to the Jewish Talmud again, this time to the Mishnah Sanhendrin,
chapter 4, verse 5, we will find where the author obtained his material, and why he included
it here.
In this account we read a Rabbi’s comments, where he interprets the word `blood' to
mean, “his own blood and the blood of his seed.” Remember, this is nothing but the
comment of a Rabbi. It is his own interpretation, and a highly speculative one at that.
Therefore, it is rather interesting that he then goes on to comment on the plural word
for ‘blood.’ Yet this Rabbi's comments are repeated almost word-for-word in the Qur'an, in
aya 32 of sura 5! How is it that a Rabbi's comments on the Biblical text, the muses of a mere
human become the Qur'anic holy writ, and attributed to God?
The only conclusion is that the later compilers learned this admonition from this
Rabbi’s writings, because there is no connection between the narrative concerning the killing
of Cain in the Qur'an (aya 31), and the subsequent verse about the whole race (aya 32).
It is only when we read the Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5 that we find the connection
between these two stories: a Rabbi's exposition of a biblical verse and a core word. The
reason why this connection is lacking in the Qur'an is now quite easy to understand. The
author of sura 5 simply did not know the context in which the Rabbi was talking, and
therefore was not aware that these were merely comments on the Biblical text and not from
the Bible itself. He simply added them to the Qur'an, repeating what he had heard without
understanding the implication.
II Targum of Esther
"Solomon...gave orders...I will send King and armies against thee...(of) Genii [jinn]
beasts of the land the birds of the air.
Just then the Red-cock (a bird), enjoying itself, could not be found; King Solomon said
that they should seize it and bring it by force, and indeed he sought to kill it.
But just then, the cock appeared in the presence of the King and said, "I had seen the
whole world (and) know the city and kingdom (of Sheba) which is not subject to thee, My
Lord King. They are ruled by a woman called the Queen of Sheba. Then I found the fortified
city in the Eastlands (Sheba) and around it are stones of gold and silver in the streets."
By chance the Queen of Sheba was out in the morning worshipping the sea, the scribes
prepared a letter, which was placed under the bird's wing and away it flew and (it) reached
the Fort of Sheba. Seeing the letter under its wing (Sheba) opened it and read it.
“King Solomon sends to you his Salaams. Now if it please thee to come and ask after my
welfare, I will set thee high above all. But if it please thee not, I will send kings and armies
against thee."
The Queen of Sheba heard it, she tore her garments, and sending for her Nobles asked
their advice. They knew not Solomon, but advised her to send vessels by the sea, full of
beautiful ornaments and gems...also to send a letter to him.
When at last she came, Solomon sent a messenger...to meet her...Solomon, hearing she
had come, arose and sat down in the palace of glass. When the Queen of Sheba saw it, she
thought the glass floor was water, and so in crossing over lifted up her garments. When
Solomon seeing the hair about her legs, (He) cried out to her..."
It is rather obvious, once you have read the two accounts above, where the compiler
of the story of Solomon and Sheba in the Qur'an obtained his data. In content and style the
Qur’anic story is almost identical with the account taken from the Jewish Targum, written in
the second Century A.D., nearly five hundred years before the creation of the Qur’an. The
two stories are uncannily similar; the jinns, the birds, and in particular the messenger bird,
which Solomon initially could not find, but then used as a liaison between himself and the
Queen of Sheba, along with the letter and the glass floor, are unique to these two accounts.
One will not find these parallels in the Biblical passages at all. Once again we must ask how
a Jewish folklore from the second century A.D. found its way into the Qur’an?
There are other instances where we find both apocryphal Jewish and Christian
literatures within the Qur’anic text. The account of Mt. Sinai being lifted up and held over
the heads of the Jews as a threat for rejecting the law (sura 7:171) comes from the second
century Jewish apocryphal book, The Abodah Sarah. The odd accounts of the early
childhood of Jesus in the Qur’an can be traced to a number of Christian apocryphal writings:
the Palm tree which provides for the anguish of Mary after Jesus’s birth (sura 19:22-26)
comes from The Lost Books of the Bible; while the account of the infant Jesus creating birds
from clay (sura 3:49) comes from Thomas’ Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ. The story
of the baby Jesus talking (sura 19:29-33) can be traced to Arabic apocryphal fable from
Egypt named The first Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ.
In sura 17:1 we have the report of Muhammad's journey by night from the ‘sacred
mosque to the farthest mosque.’ From later traditions we know this aya is referring to
Muhammad ascending up to the seventh heaven, after a miraculous night journey (the Mi'raj)
from Mecca to Jerusalem, on a “horse” called Buraq. More detail is furnished us in the
Mishkat al Masabih. We can trace the story back to a fictitious book called The Testament of
Abraham, written around 200 B.C., in Egypt, and then translated into Greek and Arabic.
Another analogous account is that of The Secrets of Enoch ( chapter 1:4-10 and 2:1), which
predates the Qur’an by four centuries. Yet a further similar account is largely modelled on
the story contained in the old Persian book entitled Arta-i Viraf Namak, telling how a pious
young Zoroastrian ascended to the skies, and, on his return, related what he had seen, or
professed to have seen (Pfander 1835:295-296).
The Qur'anic description of Hell resembles the descriptions of hell in the Homilies of
Ephraim, a Nestorian preacher of the sixth century (Glubb 1971:36)
The author of the Qur'an in suras 42:17 and 101:6-9 possibly utilized The Testament
of Abraham to teach that a scale or balance will be used on the day of judgment to weigh
good and bad deeds in order to determine whether one goes to heaven or to hell.
The description of Paradise in suras 55:56-58 and 56:22-24,35-37, which speak of the
righteous being rewarded with wide-eyed houris who have eyes like pearls has interesting
parallels in the Zoroastrian religion of Persia, where the name for the maidens is not houris,
but Paaris.
It is important to remember that the Talmudic accounts were not considered by the
orthodox Jews of that period as authentic for one very good reason: they were not in
existence at the council of Jamnia in 80 A.D. when the Old Testament was canonized.
Neither were the Christian apocryphal material considered canonical, as they were not
attested as authoritative both prior to and after the council of Nicea in 325 A.D. Thus these
accounts have always been understood as heretical by both the Jewish and Christian orthodox
believers and the literate. It is for this reason that we find it deeply suspicious that the
apocryphal accounts should have made their way into a book claiming to be the final
revelation from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Fortunately we are not totally dependent on the late Muslim sources or the Qur’an
itself for our data on the origins of the Qur’an, and Islam. There were other people in
existence at that time, who lived close by and have left us material which we can use.
Non-Muslim evidence is found in a body of material in Greek, Syriac, Armenian, Hebrew,
Aramaic, and Coptic literatures from the time of the conquests (seventh century) onwards
(Crone 1980:15). We also have a large body of Arabic inscriptions, which pre-date the
Muslim traditions (Nevo 1994:109). Yet, these materials all seem to contradict much of what
the traditions and the Qur'an say. It is this material which has proved most helpful in
assessing whether the Qur'an is the true and final Word of God. It is this material which
Muslims will need to pay attention to, and against which they will need to come up with a
ready defence. Let us then look at what it has to say.
[1] HIJRA:
A papyrus dated 643 A.D. has been discovered which speaks of the ‘year twenty
two,’ suggesting that something happened in 622 A.D. among the Arabs which coincides
with the year of the hijra (Cook 1983:74). What it was that happened we are not sure as the
papyrus does not tell us. Could this be the date that Muhammad moved from Mecca to
Medina, and nothing more, or is it the date when the Arab conquest commenced? While
Islamic tradition attributes this Hijra from Mecca to Medina, they can provide no early
source (in other words a seventh century source) which will attest to the historicity of this
exodus (Crone-Cook 1977:160). The earliest manuscript we have is an inner Arabian
biography of the prophet attested in a papyrus of the late Umayyad period, which places it
around 750 A.D., over 100 years later (Grohmann 1963:71).
The Arabic material in our possession (coins, papyri, inscriptions) all omit to name
the era (the tombstone which dates the ‘year twenty nine of the hijra,’ cited by many
Muslims, is known only from a late literary source). Greek and Syriac materials refer to the
era as that of the Arabs, but it is two Nestorian ecclesiastical documents from 676 A.D. and
680 A.D. which give us the starting point as the emigration of the Ishmaelites from not
within Arabia, but from Arabia to the ‘promised land,’ possibly outside of Arabia
(Crone-Cook 1977:9,160-161).
And where is this promised land? It should be simple to hypothesize where the
promised land was for the Nestorians who wrote the above-mentioned document, but an
Islamic tradition compiled later by Abu Dawud gives us a further clue. It says, “there will be
‘hijra’ after ‘hijra,’ but the best of men are to follow the ‘hijra’ of Abraham.” (Abu Dawud
1348:388) While some Muslims maintain this must be understood theologically to imply
Abraham’s movement from idolatry to monotheism, I think it best to retain the Biblical and
Jewish understanding of Abraham’s exodus which was from Ur of the Chaldeans to the land
of Canaan, via Haran (Genesis 11:31-12:5). Thus it would seem more likely that the
‘promised land’ to which the Arabs are emigrating is none other than the Syro-Palestinian
coastline: from Sidon to Gaza and inland to the Dead Sea cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
(Kitchen 1993:164). Patricia Crone, in her new article entitled ‘The First Century Concept of
Higra’, finds interesting support for a Hijra outside Arabia. In her article on the Hijra she
lists 57 attestations which come from within and without the Muslim tradition which point to
a Hijra, or exodus, not from Mecca to Medina, but from Arabia to the north, or to
surrounding garrison cities (Crone 1994:355-363). This is indeed interesting, as much of
what we will learn from here on will parallel and thus possibly corroborate these findings as
well.
This information on the Hijra gives us the first potential evidence which suggests that
much of the data found in the Qur'an and the Islamic traditions simply does not correspond
with existing external sources, and that perhaps there is another agenda at work here. Let us
therefore move on to find what that agenda is.
[2] QIBLA:
According to the Qur'an, the direction of prayer (the Qibla), was canonized (or
finalized) towards Mecca for all Muslims soon after the Hijra. The date 624 A .D. is an
educated guess for this occurrance (see Sura 2:144, 149-150).
Yet, the earliest evidence from outside Muslim tradition regarding the direction in
which Muslims prayed, and by implication the location of their sanctuary, points to an area
much further north than Mecca, in fact somewhere in north-west Arabia (Crone-Cook
1977:23). Consider the archaeological evidence which has been and is continuing to be
uncovered from the first mosques built in the seventh century:
According to archaeological research carried out by Creswell and Fehervari on
ancient mosques in the Middle East, two floor-plans from two Umayyad mosques in Iraq,
one built by the governor Hajjaj in Wasit (noted by Creswell as, “the oldest mosque in Islam
of which remains have come down to us” - Creswell 1989:41), and the other attributed to
roughly the same period near Baghdad, have Qiblas (the direction which these mosques are
facing) which do not face Mecca, but are oriented too far north (Creswell 1969:137ff &
1989:40; Fehervari 1961:89; Crone-Cook 1977:23,173). The Wasit mosque is off by 33
degrees, and the Baghdad mosque is off by 30 degrees (Creswell 1969:137ff; Fehervari
1961:89).
This agrees with Baladhuri's testimony (called the Futuh) that the Qibla of the first
mosque in Kufa, Iraq, supposedly constructed in 670 A.D. (Creswell 1989:41), also lay to the
west, when it should have pointed almost directly south (al-Baladhuri's Futuh, ed. by de
Goeje 1866:276; Crone 1980:12; Crone-Cook 1977:23,173).
The original ground-plan of the mosque of ‘Amr b. al ‘As, located in Fustat, the
garrison town outside Cairo, Egypt shows that the Qibla again pointed too far north and had
to be corrected later under the governorship of Qurra b. Sharik (Creswell 1969:37,150).
Interestingly this agrees with the later Islamic tradition compiled by Ahmad b. al-Maqrizi
that ‘Amr prayed facing slightly south of east, and not towards the south (al-Maqrizi 1326:6;
Crone-Cook 1977:24,173).
If you take a map you will find where it is that these mosques were pointing. All four
of the above instances position the Qibla not towards Mecca, but much further north, in fact
closer to the vicinity of Jerusalem. If, as some Muslims now say, one should not take these
findings too seriously as many mosques even today have misdirected Qiblas, then one must
wonder why, if the Muslims back then were so incapable of ascertaining directions, they
should all happen to be pointing to a singular location; to somewhere in northern Arabia, or
possibly Jerusalem?
We find further corroboration for this direction of prayer by the Christian writer and
traveller Jacob of Edessa, who, writing as late as 705 A.D. was a contemporary eye-witness
in Egypt. He maintained that the ‘Mahgraye’ in Egypt prayed facing east which was towards
the Ka'ba (Crone-Cook 1977:24). His letter (which can be found in the British Museum) is
indeed revealing. Writing in Syriac, he refers to the ‘Mahgraye,’ saying, “So from all this it
is clear that it is not to the south that the Jews and the Mahgraye here in the regions of Syria
pray, but towards Jerusalem or the Ka'ba, the patriarchal places of their races.” (Wright
1870:604) Note: The mention of a Ka’ba does not necessarily infer Mecca (as so
many Muslims have been quick to point out), since there were other Ka’bas in existence
during that time, usually in market-towns (Crone-Cook 1977:25,175). Creswell, in the notes
of his book on ‘Early Muslim Architecture’ (page 17) refers to Finster’s article Kunst des
Orients, stating that Finster “draws attention to other cube-shaped buildings in Arabia
mentioned in early Arabic literature, and suggests that the Ka’ba could therefore have been
part of an Arabian building tradition” (Creswell 1969:17; Finster 1973:88-98). It was
profitable to build a Ka’ba in these market towns so that the people coming to market could
also do their pilgrimage or penitence to the idols contained within. The Ka’ba Jacob of
Edessa was referring to was situated at “the patriarchal places of their races,” which he also
maintains was not in the south. Both the Jews and Arabs (‘Mahgraye’) maintained a
common descent from Abraham who was known to have lived and died in Palestine, as has
been corroborated by recent archaeological discoveries (see the discussion on the Ebla, Mari
and Nuzi tablets, as well as extra-Biblical 10th century references to Abraham in McDowell
1991:98-104). This common descent from Abraham is also corroborated by an Armenian
Chronicler as early as 660 A.D. (Sebeos 1904:94-96; Crone-Cook 1977:8; Cook 1983:75).
Therefore, according to Jacob of Edessa, as late as 705 A.D. the direction of prayer
towards Mecca had not yet been canonized. Dr. Crone in her 1994 article entitled “The First-
Century concept of Higra” adds another finding which could imply a Jerusalem direction for
the early Qibla. New research carried out by Patricia Carlier on the Umayyad Caliphal
summer palaces notes that the mosques at these desert palaces had Qiblas pointing towards
Jerusalem as well (Carlier 1989:118f, 134; Crone 1994:387).
According to Dr. Hawting, who teaches on the sources of Islam at the School of
Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, a part of the University of London) no mosques have
been found from this period (the seventh century) which face towards Mecca (noted from his
class lectures in 1995). Hawting cautions, however, that not all of the Qiblas face towards
Jerusalem. Some Jordanian mosques have been uncovered which face north, while there are
certain North African mosques which face south, implying that there was some confusion as
to where the early sanctuary was placed. Yet, the Qur'an tells us (in sura 2) that the direction
of the Qibla was fixed towards Mecca by approximately two years after the Hijra, or around
624 A.D., and has remained in that direction until the present!
Thus, according to Crone, Cook, Carlier and Hawting, the combination of the
archaeological evidence from Iraq and Syria, along with the literary evidence from Egypt
points unambiguously to a sanctuary [and thus direction of prayer] not in the south, but
somewhere in north-west Arabia (or even further north, possibly Jerusalem) at least till the
end of the seventh century (Crone-Cook 1977:24; Crone 1994:387). What is happening
here? Why are the Qiblas of these early mosques not facing towards Mecca? Why the
discrepancy between the Qur'an and that which archaeology as well as documents reveal as
late as 705 A.D.?
Some Muslims argue that perhaps the early Muslims did not know the direction of
Mecca. Yet these were desert traders, caravaneers! Their livelihood was dependant on
travelling the desert, which has few landmarks, and, because of the sandstorms, no roads.
They, above all, knew how to follow the stars. Their lives depended on it. Certainly they
knew the difference between the north and the south.
Furthermore, the mosques in Iraq and Egypt were built in civilized urban areas,
amongst a sophisticated people who were well adept at finding directions. It is highly
unlikely that they would miscalculate their qiblas by so many degrees. How else did they
perform the obligatory Hajj, which we are told was also canonized at this time? And why are
so many of the mosques facing in the direction of northern Arabia, or possibly Jerusalem?
The answer may lie elsewhere. I would contend that there are possibly two reasons for this
discrepancy:
1) that there was still a good relationship between the Muslims (referred to as
Haggarenes, Saracens or Mahgrayes) and the Jews, and, consequently, there was no need to
change the Qibla (which even the Qur'an admits was originally towards Jerusalem: sura 2);
and
2) that Mecca was not yet well-known. Consider:
[4] MECCA:
Muslims maintain that “Mecca is the centre of Islam, and the centre of history.”
According to the Qur'an, “The first sanctuary appointed for mankind was that at Bakkah (or
Mecca), a blessed place, a guidance for the peoples.” (Sura 3:96) In Sura 6:92 and 42:5 we
find that Mecca is the “mother of all settlements.”
According to Muslim tradition, Adam placed the black stone in the original Ka'ba
there, while according to the Qur’an (Sura 2:125-127) it was Abraham and Ishmael who
rebuilt the Ka'ba many years later. Thus, by implication, Mecca is considered by Muslims to
be the first and most important city in the world!
Apart from the obvious difficulty in finding any documentary or archaeological
evidence that Abraham ever went to or lived in Mecca, the overriding problem rests in
finding any reference to the city before the creation of Islam. From research carried out by
both Crone and Cook, the supposed first and only pre-Islamic reference to Mecca is an
inference to a city called “Makoraba” by the Greco-Egyptian geographer Ptolemy in the
mid-2nd century A.D., though we are not even sure whether this allusion by Ptolemy referred
to Mecca, as he only mentioned the name in passing. Furthermore, according to Dr. Crone,
the three Arabic root letters for Mecca (MKK) do not at all correspond with the three Arabic
root letters for Makoraba (KRB), (as the letters ‘ma-’, which preceed ‘koraba’, signify ‘the
place of’). Thus, there is absolutely no other report of Mecca or its Ka'ba in any authenticated
ancient document; that is until the late seventh century (Cook-74; Crone-Cook 1977:22). In
fact, they maintain, “the earliest references are those found in one Syriac version of the
Apocalypse of pseudo-Methodius” (Crone-Cook 1977:22,171).
However, although the Apocalypse itself dates from the late seventh century, the
references to Mecca are only found in later copies, and are not present in the European or
later Syrian traditions, and make no appearance in the ‘Vatican Codex,’ which is considered
by etymologists to be the earliest text (refer to the discussion on this problem between Nau
and Kmosko in note “7,” p. 171, in Crone & Cook's Hagarism:1977).
The next reference to Mecca, according to Crone and Cook, occurs in the Continuatio
Byzantia Arabica, which is a source dating from early in the reign of the caliph Hisham, who
ruled between 724-743 A.D. (Crone-Cook 1977:22,171).
Therefore, the earliest corroborative evidence we have for the existence of Mecca is
fully 100 years after the date when Islamic tradition and the Qur'an place it. Why?
Certainly, if it was so important a city, someone, somewhere would have mentioned it; yet
we find nothing outside of the small inference by Ptolemy 500 years earlier, and these initial
statements in the latter seventh to early eighth century.
And that is not all, for Muslims maintain that Mecca was not only an ancient and
great city, but it was also the centre of the trading routes for Arabia in the seventh century
and before (Cook 1983:74; Crone 1987:3-6). Yet, according to extensive research by Bulliet
on the history of trade in the ancient Middle-East, these claims by Muslims are quite wrong,
as Mecca simply was not on the major trading routes. The reason for this, he contends, is
that, “Mecca is tucked away at the edge of the peninsula. Only by the most tortured map
reading can it be described as a natural crossroads between a north-south route and an
east-west one.” (Bulliet 1975:105)
This is corroborated by further research carried out by Groom and Muller, who
contend that Mecca simply could not have been on the trading route, as it would have
entailed a detour from the natural route. In fact, they maintain the trade route must have
bypassed Mecca by some one-hundred miles (Groom 1981:193; Muller 1978:723).
Patricia Crone, in her work on Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam adds a practical
reason which is too often overlooked by earlier historians. She points out that, “Mecca was a
barren place, and barren places do not make natural halts, and least of all when they are
found at a short distance from famously green environments. Why should caravans have
made a steep descent to the barren valley of Mecca when they could have stopped at Ta'if.
Mecca did, of course, have both a well and a sanctuary, but so did Ta'if, which had food
supplies, too” (Crone 1987:6-7; Crone-Cook 1977:22).
Furthermore, Patricia Crone asks, “what commodity was available in Arabia that
could be transported such a distance, through such an inhospitable environment, and still be
sold at a profit large enough to support the growth of a city in a peripheral site bereft of
natural resources?” (Crone 1987:7) It wasn't incense, spices, and other exotic goods, as
many notoriously unreliable earlier writers have intimated (see Crone's discussion on the
problem of historical accuracy, particularly between Lammens, Watts and Kister, in Meccan
Trade 1987:3).
In her study on the Meccan Trade, Dr. Crone points out that of the fifteen spices
attributed to Mecca: six went out of fashion before the sixth century; two were imported by
sea; two were exclusively from East Africa; two were inferior and thus never traded; one was
of a problematic identity; and two cannot be identified at all (Crone 1987:51-83).
Consequently, not one of the fifteen spices can be attributed to Mecca. So what was the trade
for which Mecca was famous? Some Muslims maintain it was banking or perhaps camel
herding; yet in such a barren environment? According to the latest and much more reliable
research by Kister and Sprenger, the Arabs engaged in a trade of a considerably humbler
kind, that of leather and clothing; hardly items which could have founded a commercial
empire of international dimensions (Kister 1965:116; Sprenger 1869:94).
The real problem with Mecca, however, is that there simply was no international
trade taking place in Arabia, let alone in Mecca in the centuries immediately prior to
Muhammad’s birth. It seems that much of our data in this area has been spurious from the
outset, due to sloppy research of the original sources, carried out by Lammens, “an unreliable
scholar,” and repeated by the great orientalists such as Watts, Shaban, Rodinson, Hitti, Lewis
and Shahid (Crone 1987:3,6). Lammens, using first century sources (such as Periplus - 50
A.D., and Pliny - 79 A.D.) should have used the later sixth century Greek, Byzantine and
Egyptian historians who were closer to the events (such as Cosmas, Procopius and
Theodoretus). Because they were not only merchants, travellers, geographers but historians
they knew the area and the period and therefore would have given a more accurate picture
(Crone 1987:3,19-22,44).
Had he referred to these later historians he would have found that the Greek trade
between India and the Mediterranean was entirely maritime after the first century A.D.
(Crone 1987:29). One need only look at a map to understand why. It made no sense to ship
goods across such distances by land when a water-way was available close by. Patricia
Crone points out that in Diocletian's Rome it was cheaper to ship wheat 1,250 miles by sea
than to transport it fifty miles by land (Crone 1987:7). The distance from Najran, Yemen in
the south, to Gaza in the north was roughly 1,250 miles. Why would the traders ship their
goods from India by sea, and unload it at Aden where it would be put on the backs of much
slower and more expensive camels to trudge across the inhospitable Arabian desert to Gaza,
when they could simply have left it on the ships and followed the Red Sea route up the west
coast of Arabia?
There were other problems as well. Had Lammens researched his sources correctly
he would have also found that the Greco-Roman trade collapsed by the third century A.D., so
that by Muhammad’s time there was not only no overland route, but no Roman market to
which the trade was destined (Crone 1987:29). He would have similarly found that what
trade remained, was controlled by the Ethiopians and not the Arabs, and that Adulis on the
Ethiopian coast of the Red Sea and not Mecca was the trading centre of that region (Crone
1987:11,41-42).
Of even more significance, had Lammens taken the time to study the early Greek
sources, he would have discovered that the Greeks to whom the trade went had never even
heard of a place called Mecca (Crone 1987:11,41-42). If, according to the Muslim traditions,
and recent orientalists, Mecca was so important, certainly those to whom the trade was going
would have noted its existence. Yet, we find nothing. Crone in her work points out that the
Greek trading documents refer to the towns of Ta'if (which is close to present-day Mecca),
and to Yathrib (later Medina), as well as Kaybar in the north, but no mention is made of
Mecca (Crone 1987:11). Even the Persian Sassanids, who had incursions into Arabia
between 309 and 570 A.D. mentioned the towns of Yathrib (Medina) and Tihama, but not
Mecca (Crone 1987:46-50). That indeed is troubling.
Had the later orientalists bothered to check out Lammens’ sources, they too would
have realized that since the overland route was not used after the first century A.D., it
certainly was not in use in the fifth or sixth centuries (Crone 1987:42), and much of what has
been written concerning Mecca would have been corrected long before now.
Finally, the problem of locating Mecca in the early secular sources is not unique, for
there is even some confusion within Islamic tradition as to where exactly Mecca was initially
situated (see the discussion on the evolution of the Meccan site in Crone & Cook's Hagarism
1977:23,173). According to research carried out by J.van Ess, in both the first and second
civil wars, there are accounts of people proceeding from Medina to Iraq via Mecca (van Ess
1971:16; see also Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Dhahabi 1369:343). Yet Mecca is south-west of
Medina, and Iraq is north-east. Thus the sanctuary for Islam, according to these traditions
was at one time north of Medina, which is the opposite direction from where Mecca is today!
We are left in a quandary. If Mecca was not the great commercial centre the Muslim
traditions would have us believe, if it was not known by the people who lived and wrote from
that period, and, if it could not even qualify as a viable city during the time of Muhammad, it
certainly could not have been the centre of the Muslim world at that time. What city,
therefore, was? The answer is not that difficult to guess, as has been intimated already. It
seems that Jerusalem and not Mecca was the centre and sanctuary of the Haggarenes, or
Maghrayes (early names given to the Arabs) until around 700 A.D..
The earlier discussions concerning the Hijra, the Qibla, and the Jews pointed out that
it was towards the north, possibly Palestine that the Hijra was directed, that it was
somewhere in the north-west of Arabia that the Hagarenes turned to pray, and that it was
alongside the Jews that the conquests were carried out (Crone-Cook
1977:9,160-161,23-24,6-9). Add to that another fact which may help us bring this all
together:
[6] MUHAMMAD:
The writings by the Armenian chronicler from around 660 A.D. (referred to earlier)
give us the earliest narrative account of Muhammad's career to survive in any language,
attesting that Muhammad was a merchant who spoke much about Abraham, thus providing
us with early historical evidence for the existence of Muhammad (Cook 1983:73). Yet this
chronicler says nothing of Muhammad's universal prophethood, intimating he was only a
local prophet.
Even the earliest Islamic documents, according to Dr. John Wansbrough, say nothing
of his universal prophethood. The Maghazi, which Wansbrough points out are stories of the
prophet's battles and campaigns, are the earliest Islamic documents which we possess
(Wansbrough 1978:119). They should give us the best snapshot of that time, yet they tell us
little concerning Muhammad's life or teachings. In fact, nowhere in these documents is there
a veneration of Muhammad as a prophet! If, according to the Qur'an, Muhammad is known
primarily as the “seal of all prophets” (Sura 33:40), then why would these documents be
silent on this very important point?
Nevo's Rock inscriptions:
In order to know who Muhammad was, and what he did, we must, therefore, go back
to the time when he lived, and look at the evidence which existed then, and still exists, to see
what it can tell us about this very important figure. Wansbrough, who has done so much
research on the early traditions and the Qur'an believes that, because the Islamic sources are
all very late, from 150 years for the Sira-Maghazi documents, as well as the earliest Qur'an, it
behoves us not to consider them authoritative (Wansbrough 1977:160-163; Rippin
1985:154-155). It is when we look at the non-Muslim sources that we find some rather
interesting observances as to who this man Muhammad was.
The best non-Muslim sources on seventh century Arabia which we have are those
provided by the Arabic rock inscriptions scattered all over the Syro-Jordanian deserts and the
Peninsula, and especially the Negev desert (Nevo 1994:109). The man who has done the
greatest research on these rock inscriptions is Yehuda Nevo, of the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. It is to his research, which is titled Towards a Prehistory of Islam, published in
1994, that I will refer.
Nevo has found in the Arab religious texts, dating from the first century and a half of
Arab rule (seventh to eighth century A.D.), a monotheistic creed. However, he contends that
this creed “is demonstrably not Islam, but [a creed] from which Islam could have developed.”
(Nevo 1994:109)
Nevo also found that “in all the Arab religious institutions during the Sufyani period
[661-684 A.D.] there is a complete absence of any reference to Muhammad.” (Nevo
1994:109) In fact neither the name Muhammad itself nor any Muhammadan formulae (that
he is the prophet of God) appears in any inscription dated before the year 691 A.D.. This is
true whether the main purpose of the inscription is religious, such as in supplications, or
whether it was used as a commemorative inscription, though including a religious emphasis,
such as the inscription at the dam near the town of Ta'if, built by the Caliph Mu'awiya in the
660s A.D. (Nevo 1994:109).
The fact that Muhammad's name is absent on all of the early inscriptions, especially
the religious ones is significant. Many of the later traditions (i.e. the Sira and the Hadith,
which are the earliest Muslim literature that we possess) are made up almost entirely of
narratives on the prophet’s life. He is the example which all Muslims are to follow. Why
then do we not find this same emphasis in these much earlier Arabic inscriptions which are
closer to the time he lived? Even more troubling, why is there no mention of him at all? His
name is only found on the Arab inscriptions after 690 A.D. (Nevo 1994:109-110).
And what's more, the first dated occurrence of the phrase Muhammad rasul Allah
(Muhammad is the prophet of God) is found on an Arab-Sassanian coin of Xalid b. ‘Abdallah
from the year 690 A.D., which was struck in Damascus (Nevo 1994:110).
Of greater significance, the first occurrence of what Nevo calls the “Triple
Confession of Faith,” including the Tawhid (that God is one), the phrase, Muhammad rasul
Allah (that Muhammad is his prophet), and the human nature of Jesus (rasul Allah wa-
‘abduhu), is found in ‘Abd al-Malik's inscription in the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem,
dated 691 A.D. (Nevo 1994:110)! Before this inscription the Muslim confession of faith
cannot be attested at all. It must be noted, however, that the date for this inscription could
itself be much later, possibly added by al Zaher Li-L'zaz when he rebuilt the inner and outer
ambulatories, above which the inscription is situated, in 1022 A.D. (Duncan 1972:46).
As a rule, after 691 A.D. and on through the Marwanid dynasty (until 750 A.D.),
Muhammad's name usually occurs whenever religious formulae are used, such as on coins,
milestones, and papyrus “protocols” (Nevo 1994:110).
One could probably argue that perhaps these late dates are due to the fact that any
religious notions took time to penetrate the Arabic inscriptions. Yet, according to Nevo, the
first Arabic papyrus, an Egyptian entaqion, which was a receipt for taxes paid, dated 642
A.D. and written in both Greek and Arabic is headed by the “Basmala,” yet it is neither
Christian nor Muslim in character (Nevo 1994:110).
The religious content within the rock inscriptions does not become pronounced until
after 661 A.D. However, though they bear religious texts, they never mention the prophet or
the Muhammadan formulae (Nevo 1994:110). “This means,” according to Nevo, “that the
official Arab religious confession did not include Muhammad or Muhammadan formulae in
its repertoire of set phrases at this time,” a full 60 years and more after the death of
Muhammad (Nevo 1994:110). What they did contain was a monotheistic form of belief,
belonging to a certain body of sectarian literature with developed Judaeo-Christian
conceptions in a particular literary style, but one which contained no features specific to any
known monotheistic religion (Nevo 1994:110,112).
Of even greater significance, these inscriptions show that when the Muhammadan
formulae is introduced, during the Marwanid period (after 684 A.D.), it is carried out “almost
overnight” (Nevo 1994:110). Suddenly it became the state's only form of official religious
declaration, and was used exclusively in formal documents and inscriptions, such as the
papyrus “protocols” (Nevo 1994:110).
Yet even after the Muhammadan texts became official, they were not accepted by the
public quite so promptly. For years after their appearance in state declarations, people
continued to include non-Muhammadan legends in personal inscriptions, as well as routine
chancery writings (Nevo 1994:114). Thus, for instance, Nevo has found a certain scribe who
does not use the Muhammadan formulae in his Arabic and Greek correspondence, though he
does on papyrus “protocols” bearing his name and title (Nevo 1994:114).
In fact, according to Nevo, Muhammadan formulae only began to be used in the
popular rock inscriptions of the central Negev around 30 years (or one generation) after its
introduction by ‘Abd al-Malik, sometime during the reign of Caliph Hisham (between
724-743 A.D.). And even these, according to Nevo, though they are Muhammadan, are not
Muslim. The Muslim texts, he believes, only begin to appear at the beginning of the ninth
century (around 822 A.D.), coinciding with the first written Qur'ans, as well as the first
written traditional Muslim accounts (Nevo 1994:115).
Consequently, it seems from these inscriptions that it was during the Marwanid
dynasty (after 684 A.D.), and not during the life of Muhammad that he was elevated to the
position of a universal prophet, and that even then, the Muhammadan formula which was
introduced was still not equivalent with that which we have today. For further discussion on
the six classifications or periods of the rock inscriptions, and their content, I would
recommend Nevo's article (pages 111-112).
[8] QUR'AN:
We now come to the Qur'an itself. As was stated earlier, it seems evident that the
Qur'an underwent a transformation during the 100 years following the prophet’s death. We
have now uncovered coins with supposed Qur'anic writings on them which date from 685
A.D., coined during the reign of ‘Abd al-Malik (Nevo 1994:110). Furthermore, the Dome of
the Rock sanctuary built by ‘Abd al-Malik in Jerusalem in 691 A.D. “does attest to the
existence, at the end of the seventh century, of materials immediately recognizable as
Koranic.” (Crone-Cook 1977:18) Yet, the quotations from the Qur'an on both the coins and
the Dome of the Rock differ in details from that which we find in the Qur'an today (Cook
1983:74). Van Berchem and Grohmann, two etymologists who have done extensive research
on the Dome of the Rock inscriptions, maintain that the earliest inscriptions contain “variant
verbal forms, extensive deviances, as well as omissions from the text which we have today.”
(Cook 1983:74; Crone-Cook 1977:167-168; see Van Berchem part two, vol.ii,
nos.1927:215-217 and Grohmann's Arabic Papyri from Hirbet el-Mird, no.72 to delineate
where these variances are)
If these inscriptions had been derived from the Qur'an, with the variants which they
contain, then how could the Qur'an have been canonized prior to this time (late seventh
century)? One can only conclude that there must have been an evolution in the transmission
of the Qur'an through the years (if indeed they were originally taken from the Qur'an).
The sources also seem to suggest that the Qur'an was put together rather hurriedly (as
we mentioned in the previous section, on the internal critique of the Qur’an). This is
underlined by Dr. John Wansbrough who maintains that, “the book is strikingly lacking in
overall structure, frequently obscure and inconsequential in both language and content,
perfunctory in its linking of disparate materials, and given to the repetition of whole passages
in variant versions. On this basis it can plausibly be argued that the book is the product of
the belated and imperfect editing of materials from a plurality of traditions.” (quoted in
Hagarism, Crone-Cook 1977:18,167) Thus Crone and Cook believe that because of the
imperfection of the editing, the emergence of the Qur'an must have been a sudden and late
event (Crone-Cook 1977:18,167).
As to when that event took place we are not altogether sure, but we can make an
educated guess. From the earlier discussion concerning the dating of the earliest manuscripts
we can conclude that there was no Qur’anic documentation in existence in the mid-late
seventh century. The earliest reference from outside Islamic literary traditions to the book
called the “Qur'an” occurs in the mid-eighth century between an Arab and a monk of Bet
Hale (Nau 1915:6f), but no-one knows whether it may have differed considerably in content
from the Qur'an which we have today. Both Crone and Cook conclude that except for this
small reference there is no indication of the existence of the Qur'an before the end of the
seventh century (Crone-Cook 1977:18).
Crone and Cook in their research go on to maintain that it was under the governor
Hajjaj of Iraq in 705 A.D. that we have a logical historical context in which the “Qur'an” (or
a nascent body of literature which would later become the Qur’an) was first compiled as
Muhammad's scripture (Crone-Cook 1977:18). In an account attributed to Leo by Levond,
the governor Hajjaj is shown to have collected all the old Hagarene writings and replaced
them with others “according to his own taste, and disseminated them everywhere among [his]
nation.” (Jeffrey 1944:298) The natural conclusion is that it was during this period that the
Qur'an began its evolution, possibly beginning to be written down, until it was finally
canonized in the mid to late eighth century as the Qur'an which we now know.
--------
All these findings give us good reason to question the true authority of the current
Qur'an as the word of God. Archaeology, as well as documentary and manuscript evidence
indicates that much of what the Qur'an maintains does not coincide with the data at our
disposal. From the material amassed from external sources in the seventh and eighth
centuries, we can conclude:
1) that the Hijra was more-than-likely not towards Medina, but towards Palestine;
2) that the Qibla was not fixed towards Mecca until the eighth century, but to an area
much further north, and possibly Jerusalem;
3) that the Jews still retained a relationship with the Arabs until at least 640 A.D.;
4) that Jerusalem and not Mecca was more-than-likely the city which contained one
of the original sanctuaries for Islam, as Mecca was not only unknown as a viable city until
the end of the seventh century, but it was not even on the international trade route;
5) that the Dome of the Rock was the likely used as a sanctuary;
6) that Muhammad was not known as God’s universal prophet until the late seventh
century;
7) that the terms ‘Muslim’/‘Islam’ were not used until the end of the seventh century;
8) that five daily prayers as well as the Hajj were not standardized until after 717
A.D.;
9) that the earliest we even hear of any Qur'an is not until the late seventh century;
10)that the earliest Qur'anic writings do not coincide with the current Qur'anic text.
All of this data contradicts the Qur'an which is in our possession, and adds to the
suspicion that the Qur'an which we now read is NOT the same as that which was supposedly
collated and canonized in 650 A.D. under Uthman, as Muslims contend (if indeed it even
existed at that time). One can only assume that there must have been an evolution in the
Qur'anic text. Consequently, that which we can say with any certainty is that only the
documents which have been dated from 790 A.D. onwards are identical to those which are in
our hands today, written not 16 years after Muhammad's death but 160 years later, and thus
not 1,400 years ago, but a mere 1,200 years. The ramifications of this assertion are
astounding indeed.
CONCLUSION
What, therefore can we say concerning the Qur'an? Is it the quintessential Word of
God? Muslims contend that we can only understand the origins of the Qur'an through the
eyes of Muslim Tradition, which tells us that Allah revealed his truth through the Qur'an
which was sent down to Muhammad. We, however, suspect the authenticity for this claim,
as the primary sources for the later traditions simply do not exist prior to the eighth century.
In fact the Muslim sources which we do possess are of a relatively later date, compiled
between 200-300 years after the fact, and are dependant on oral traditions passed down by
storytellers whose narratives not only cannot be corroborated, but suddenly seem to
proliferate towards the end of the eighth century.
Wansbrough takes the position that the Qur'an was compiled even later than the
traditions, and was used as an authoritative stamp to authenticate later beliefs and laws by
those who were responsible for canonizing the Muslim Tradition. If he is correct, then one
would wonder whether Muhammad would even recognize the Qur'an which we possess
today.
Nonetheless, the Qur'an itself has been suggested as a source for Islam, and its own
best authority. Yet it too suffers from many of the same problems mentioned above. When
we open the Qur’an and read it we are faced immediately with many structural and literary
difficulties which bode ill for a document claiming to be the final and perfect Word of God.
We are presented with spurious “Biblical accounts” which parallel known second century
heretical Talmudic and Christian Apocryphal documents. And while we wonder how these
very human documents found their way into a supposedly non-human scripture, we are
introduced to scientific peculiarities which have also found their way into its pages. These
difficulties do seem to point away from a divine authorship and point towards a more
plausible explanation; that the Qur’an is simply a collection of disparate sources borrowed
from surrounding pieces of literature, folk tales, and oral traditions present during the seventh
and eighth centuries, and accidently grafted in by unsuspecting later compilers of the
Abbasid period.
Non-Muslim sources which we possess from a variety of surrounding societies also
corroborate the evidence above. Much of what we find in these external seventh and eighth
century sources contradict what the Muslim Tradition and the Qur'an tell us, causing us to
suspect the latter’s authenticity.
In the end we are left with little on which to hold. Muslim sources are found to be
questionable, while non-Muslim sources point to a dearth of any real evidence for the
accurateness of the Qur'an. There is indeed, much disturbing material here with which the
Muslim apologist must now contend. Yet, I do find solace in the fact that the next time I see
a Muslim holding his Qur'an aloft as evidence of Allah's blueprint for humanity, I can ask
him one simple question, the same question historians are now asking, “Where, indeed is the
evidence for that which they believe?”
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The Caliphs: