RE: possible origins of islam (higher criticism scholars/ history nuts welcome)
August 4, 2015 at 12:04 am
(This post was last modified: August 4, 2015 at 12:10 am by Justtristo.)
(June 25, 2015 at 12:36 pm)Minimalist Wrote: I suggest you read Robert Spencer's "Did Mohammed Exist?" The muslims go birdshit over it but they go birdshit over almost everything so that is no barrier.
There is evidence for the existence of a man who the character of Muhammad was based on in the text of Doctrina Jacobi written in Palestine between 634 and 640, which I will quote below. However I do believe the character of Muhammad has been very heavily mythologized. Not to mention that the Sira the earliest biographies of Muhammad were written down around one to two centuries after his supposed death.
Quote: When the candidatus [that is, a member of the Byzantine imperial guard] was killed by the Saracens [Sarakenoi], I was at Caesarea and I set off by boat to Sykamina. People were saying "the candidatus has been killed," and we Jews were overjoyed. And they were saying that the prophet had appeared, coming with the Saracens, and that he was proclaiming the advent of the anointed one, the Christ who was to come.
I, having arrived at Sykamina, stopped by a certain old man well-versed in scriptures, and I said to him: "What can you tell me about the prophet who has appeared with the Saracens?" He replied, groaning deeply: "He is false, for the prophets do not come armed with a sword. Truly they are works of anarchy being committed today and I fear that the first Christ to come, whom the Christians worship, was the one sent by God and we instead are preparing to receive the Antichrist. Indeed, Isaiah said that the Jews would retain a perverted and hardened heart until all the earth should be devastated. But you go, master Abraham, and find out about the prophet who has appeared."
So I, Abraham, inquired and heard from those who had met him that there was no truth to be found in the so-called prophet, only the shedding of men's blood. He says also that he has the keys of paradise, which is incredible [i.e., not credible].
I would recommend reading the In the Shadow of the Sword by Tom Holland about a credible hypothesis about the real origins of Islam. This hypothesis is supported strongly by what historic evidence we have and answers a lot more questions about how Islam emerged, than the traditional Islamic accounts do.
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