Did Muhammad Exist?: An Inquiry into Islam's Obscure Origins (35 page)

10
Sophronius,
Ep. Synodica, Patrologia Greca
87, 3197D–3200A (quoted in Hoyland,
Seeing Islam
, 69).

11
Sophronius,
Christmas Sermon
, 506 (quoted in Hoyland,
Seeing Islam
, 70).

12
Sophronius,
Holy Baptism
, 162 (quoted in Hoyland,
Seeing Islam
, 72–73).

13
Steven Runciman,
A History of the Crusades
, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951), 3.

14
Ibid., 1:4.

15
On the Pact of Umar, see Mark Cohen, “What Was the Pact of Umar? A Literary-Historical Study,”
Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam
23 (1999), 100–158.

16
Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari,
The History of al-Tabari
, vol. XII, “The Battle of al-Qadisiyyah and the Conquest of Syria and Palestine,” trans. Yohanan Friedmann (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992), 191–92.

17
Quoted in J. B. Chabot, trans. and ed.,
Synodicon Orientale
, 3 vols. (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1902), Syriac text, 1:224, French translation, 2:488 (quoted in Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 218).

18
Quoted in Chabot,
Synodicon Orientale
, Syriac text, vol. 1, 224, French translation, 2:488, Nestorian Synod, 676
C.E
., Canon 16 (quoted in Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 219).

19
Quoted in F. M. Nau, “Littérature Canonique Syriaque Ineditée,”
Revue de l'Orient Chrétien
14 (1909): 128–30 (quoted in Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 217).

20
Quoted in Nau, “Littérature Canonique Syriaque Inéditée,” 128–30 (quoted in Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 217–18).

21
For more on this from a different perspective, see Fred M. Donner,
Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam
(Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010).

22
Patriarch John–Arab Emir,
Colloquy
, trans. Francois Nau, “Un colloque de patriarche Jean avec l'émir des Agareens et fait divers des années 712 a 716,”
Journal Asiatique
11/5 (1915): 225–79 (quoted in Hoyland,
Seeing Islam
, 459).

23
Alphonse Mingana, “The Transmission of the Koran,” in Ibn Warraq, ed.,
The Origins of the Koran
(Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 1998), 105.

24
Duval, ed.,
Corp. Script. Christ. Orient
, tomus LXIV, 97 (quoted in Mingana, “The Transmission of the Koran,” 106).

25
Sebeos,
Histoire d'Héraclius par l'Evêque Sebêos
, trans. Frederic Macler (Paris: 1904), 94–96 (quoted in Patricia Crone and Michael Cook,
Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World
[Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977], 6–7).

26
See Donner,
Muhammad and the Believers.

27
Quoted in Sebeos,
Histoire
, 139–40 (translated into English and quoted in Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 229).

28
Chronica Minora
, tomus IV, 30, 38, in Duval, ed.,
Corp. Script. Christ. Orient
(quoted in Mingana, “The Transmission of the Koran,” 106–7).

29
Quoted in Alphonse Mingana,
Sources Syriaques
, vol. 1, pt. 2, 146ff. (quoted in Mingana, “The Transmission of the Koran,” 107).

30
The Chronicle of John (c. 690
A.D
.) Coptic Bishop of Nikiu
, trans. and ed. Robert H. Church (London: 1916; reprinted Philo Press), ch. 121, pp. 10–11, 201 (quoted in Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 233).

31
Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 234.

32
F. Nau, “Lettre de Jacques d'Edesse sur la généalogie de la sainte Vierge,”
Revue de l'Orient Chrétien
(1901): 518–23 (quoted in Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 235).

33
John of Damascus,
De haeresibus
C/CI, 60–61 (=
Patrologia Greca
94, 764A–765A) (quoted in Hoyland,
Seeing Islam
, 486).

34
Ibid., 63–64 (=
Patrologia Greca
94, 765C–769B) (quoted in Hoyland,
Seeing Islam
, 486–87).

35
Ibid., 64–67 (=
Patrologia Greca
94, 769B–772D) (quoted in Hoyland,
Seeing Islam
, 487).

36
Ibid., 61 (=
Patrologia Greca
94, 765A–B) (quoted in Hoyland,
Seeing Islam
, 488–89).

Chapter 2: Jesus, the Muhammad

1
X
represents the Arabic letter
, a guttural
kh
sound.

2
Quoted in Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 409.

3
Contrast this with an inscription on a mosque in Medina, dating from the year 752 (quoted in Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 421):

In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate! There is no God but Allah alone, He has no
sarik
[companion in worship].

Muhammad is the servant of Allah and His messenger.

He it is who sent His messenger with the Guidance and the religion of Truth, to make it victorious over every other religion, even in the face of the
musrikun's
[polytheists'] dislike and hatred!

The Servant of God, Commander of the Faithful, has ordered to fear Allah and to obey Him which is to act according to Allah's kitab [book] and the sunnah [accepted practice] of the Prophet…

4
Quoted in Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 411.

5
Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 250.

6
Clive Foss,
Arab-Byzantine Coins: An Introduction, with a Catalogue of the Dumbarton Oaks Collection
(Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2008), 34.

7
Ibid.

8
A hadith narrated by Abu Huraira tells us: “Allah's Apostle said, ‘By Him in Whose Hands my soul is, surely the son of Maryam (Mary) Iesa (Jesus) will shortly descend amongst you people (Muslims) and will judge mankind justly by the Law of the Qur'an (as a just ruler) and will break the cross and kill the pig and abolish the
Jizya
(a tax taken from the non-Muslims, who are in the protection of the Muslim government). This Jizya tax will not be accepted by Iesa (Jesus). Then there will be abundance of money and nobody will accept charitable gifts.’” Quoted in Muhammad Ibn Ismail al-Bukhari,
Sahih al-Bukhari: The Translation of the Meanings
, trans. Muhammad M. Khan (Riyadh: Darussalam, 1997), vol. 3, book 34, no. 2222.

9
Ahmed ibn Naqib al-Misri,
Reliance of the Traveller (‘Umdat as-Salik): A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law
, trans. Nuh Ha Mim Keller (Beltsville, MD: Amana Publications, 1999), 011.5(6).

10
For more on this from a different perspective, see Donner,
Muhammad and the Believers.

11
Volker Popp, “The Early History of Islam, Following Inscriptional and Numismatic Testimony,” in Karl-Heinz Ohlig and Gerd-R. Puin, eds.,
The Hidden Origins of Islam
(Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2010), 55.

12
Popp, “The Early History of Islam,” 113.

13
Ibid., 55, 56.

14
Ibid., 55.

15
Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 265–66. The translation of the Qur'anic texts here is that of Nevo and Koren.

16
Ibn Ishaq,
The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah
, trans. Alfred Guillaume (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955), 104; Ibn Warraq,
Virgins? What Virgins? And Other Essays
(Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2010), 50.

17
Alfred Guillaume, “The Version of the Gospels Used in Medina Circa 700
A.D
.,”
Al-Andalus
15 (1950): 289–96 (quoted in Ibn Warraq,
Virgins?
, 50).

18
Foss,
Arab-Byzantine Coins
, 34.

19
Ibid., 47.

20
See Donner,
Muhammad and the Believers.

21
Popp, “The Early History of Islam,” 34–36.

22
Foss,
Arab-Byzantine Coins
, 118.

23
Quoted in Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 377.

24
Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 383.

25
Yazid was famous as a falconer, and the ruler on this coin is depicted with a bird on his wrist. Foss,
Arab-Byzantine Coins
, 48.

26
See Christoph Luxenberg, “A New Interpretation of the Arabic Inscription in Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock,” in Ohlig and Puin,
The Hidden Origins of Islam.

27
Estelle Whelan, “Forgotten Witness: Evidence for the Early Codification of the Qur'an,”
Journal of the American Oriental Society
, 118 (1998): 1–14, reprinted at
http://www.islamic-awareness.org/History/Islam/Dome_Of_The_Rock/Estwitness.html
. The bracketed material is in the translation of the inscription as Whelan published it and has not been added by the present author. For more on the Dome of the Rock inscription, see Oleg Grabar,
The Dome of the Rock
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), and Donner,
Muhammad and the Believers.
The Qur'an quotations are as in Whelan's translation.

28
Whelan, “Forgotten Witness,” reprinted at
http://www.islamic-awareness.org/History/Islam/Dome_Of_The_Rock/Estwitness.html
.

29
Luxenberg, “A New Interpretation,” 130.

30
Ibid., 128–29.

31
See Karl-Heinz Ohlig, “Syrian and Arabian Christianity and the Qur'an,” in Ohlig and Puin,
The Hidden Origins of Islam
, 361–402.

32
Quoted in Nevo and Koren,
Crossroads to Islam
, 411.

33
Foss,
Arab-Byzantine Coins
, 59.

34
Ibid., 110.

35
Hoyland,
Seeing Islam
, 553.

36
Foss,
Arab-Byzantine Coins
, 60.

37
Hoyland,
Seeing Islam
, 551.

38
John bar Penkaye,
Ktaba d-rish melle
, 155/183, in Sebastian P. Brock, trans., “North Mesopotamia in the Late Seventh Century: Book XV of John bar Penkaye's
Ris Melle
,”
Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam
9 (1987), 64 (quoted in Hoyland,
Seeing Islam
, 552).