ISLAM
MANUSCRIPTS
-Oral
tradition is open to embellishment (i.e. griots), mss. aged,
disintegrated - did early mss. exist?
-Why in the
7th century can we not find MSS for a Qur’an, or
for the many traditions?
-UTHMANIC
RECENSION: (claimed 650 AD)
not Topkapi / Sammarkand
-must do
‘Accelerated Mass Spectrography’ (AMS) analysis and
SCRIPT Analysis
-SCRIPTS:
1. Ma'il
7th-9th century (Medina and
Mecca).
2.
Mashq-Hijazi 7th century onwards.
3. Kufic
8th-11th century (needs landscape
format).
4. Naskh
11th century till
today.
-COINS:
Mashq/Hijazi = from 697AD - 750AD, thus Umayyad
Kufic
=
750AD onwards, same as MSS, thus Abbasid!
-Quraish =
Mecca;
Kufa conquered in 636 AD = Persia
-Noldeke, Hawting,
Schacht, Lings, Safadi all date Topkapi/Sammarkand to 9th
century.
-Ma'il Qur’an in British Library, Lings
= 790AD
-Conclusion: no Uthmanic recension, & Qur'an is
1,200 years old, not 1400 = 150 year
gap!
-TALMUDIC
SOURCES:
-Cain &
Abel:(raven)S.5:3
= Targum
Jonathan-ben-Uzziah,(blood)S.5:32=Mishnah
Sanhedrin
4:5
-Abraham:
(smashed idols, fiery pit) (S.21:51-71) = Midrash
Rabbah
-Solomon & Sheba: (hoopoo bird, mirrored floor)
(S.27:17-44) = II
Targum of Esther
SIRA,
HADITH, TARIKH, TAFSIR PROBLEMS:
-late dates: Sira (Hisham = 833AD), Hadith
(Buhari = 870AD), Tarikh, Tafsir (Tabari =
923AD)
-Credibility: reflect 9th-10th century, bias based on
ra’y (opinion), conflicting akhbars
-Contradictions: Al-Tabari’s conflicting accounts (i.e. 15
differing accounts of Muh.
meeting)
-Proliferation: Waqidi & Abdallah; Bukhari ->
from600,000 down to 7,397 (or 2,762
originals)
-Isnad:
names of
transmitters, begins with Sha’fi (820AD), yet no documentation
till 9th century.
-Storytelling: Kussas
responsible for stories of Biblical & Iranian legend, much
like Griots today.
-HADITH
COMPILATION CRITIQUE:
Buhari: -Abu
bakr (632-634)
with 1st compilation (6:509)
-
Uthman
(644-656) revised Hafsa ms, and has all
other mss destroyed (Mas’ud & Ka’b)
(4&6:510)
-Verses
canceled (5:416) or now are missing
(Rajam = stoning S.24:2) (8:817)
Imam
Malik - Some verses have been
changed
Sahih
Muslim - Parts of the Qur’an has been forgotten
Ibn Dawud -Verses were lost, overlooked,
& modified
As-Suyuti - Much of Qur’an has
disappeared
DOCUMENTARY
EVIDENCE
JEWS:
-split with
Muhammad in 624 AD, in Medina (S.2:144-150),
yet:
-Doctrina Iacobi = in 642ADJews/Saracens were still
allied
-Armenian Chronicler 660 AD = Jews
& Ishmaelites allied in 640AD, common Abrahamic
ancestry
-Hijra
historical accounts show that it was from Arabia to the north and
not from Mecca to Medina.
MECCA:
-(S.3:96)=1st
sanctuary, Adam =1st city,
Abraham & Ishmael rebuilt Kaaba,
centre of Trade
-No
reference till 724AD
[Apocalypse
of Pseudo-Methodius]
-note: Pliny’s
“Makoraba” is not Mecca, as different root
letters [MKK vs. KRB, ‘ma’ = ‘place
of’]
-Sources:
Orientalists used Lammens,
who used
Periplus (50AD), Pliny
(79AD)
-Should have
used Cosmas, Procopius,
Theodoretus (5th-6th cent) closer to
events in place &
time:
-No overland trade post-1st cent., as all international
trade was maritime through the Red Sea.
-For obvious
reasons, as it was cheaper 1,250 miles by ship than 50 miles
by camel!
-Trade declined
post-3rd cent, with Ethiopians not
Arabians controlling trade (capital = Adulis)
-Mecca in a valley,
little water, couldn’t support trade & off trade route
unlike Taif
50 mi. away.
-If no mention of
Mecca at all, then
historical
credibility eradicated, no
sanctuary, Sura 2 in Qur’an at fault, as well as the later
traditions.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
ACCURACY
QIBLA
-(S.2:144-150)
change from Jerusalem to Mecca in
624AD (so all Qiblas should be to Mecca)
-Wasit,
Baghdad & Kufa = West, Al
‘As = East
-Syrian Caliphal
Palaces = Jerusalem
-Jacob of
Edessa 705 AD mentions in a
letter that the Saracens prayed
towards Jerusalem
DOME
OF THE ROCK:
-by Abd al-Malik
in 691AD, yet nothing written about the Mi'raj on
inner
ambulatory
-
Inscriptions
Polemical & not quite the same as found in the
Qur’an!(i.e. Shahada adds ‘no
partners’)
(variant verbal forms, & extensive
deviancies)
-no Qibla,
octagonal, best suited for circumambulating, perhaps 1st sanctuary, or one of
many?
NEVO’S
INSCRIPTIONS:
-Arabic, and
religious after 661
AD
-no Muhammad formula
untill 690 AD
-then
Tawhid, Muhammad rasul Allah (Muhammad
formula) Jesus =
man, basically polemical
-Muhammad formula
found on Protocols suddenly in 691AD, but not accepted until
724AD.
Note:
compared to the Biblical archaeological evidence, there is no
archaeological evidence for Adam, Abraham, or Ishmael in
Arabia!
------------------------------------------------------------------
BRITISH
MUSEUM
QUR’ANIC EXHIBITS:
-Ma’il
Qur’an in MSS exhibit (790 AD, though recent attempts to bring
it forward 100 years)
-Kufic
Qur’ans in MSS exhibit (9th
centuries)
-COINS: Umayyad
(Naskh, Mashq) & Abbasid (Kufic)
-coins place the
Kufic script from 750 AD and not before, so Samarkand and
Topkapi must be post-750
AD!!
CONCLUSION:
What does
this evidence tell us concerning the historicity of
Islam?:
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
one of a number of cities which contained the
first
sanctuaries for
Islam, as
Mecca was not only unknown as a viable city until the
end of the seventh century, but was not even on the trade
route;
5) that the Dome of
the Rock was the likely
position of a sanctuary in the late 7th
cent.;
6) that Muhammad
was not known as God’s
universal prophet until the late 7th
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 mid_eighth
century;
10)that the earliest Qur'anic writings
don’t coincide exactly with the current Qur'anic
text.
The
Qur'an gives authority to the Bible:
-argument of
corruption began with Ibn Hazam (1064), so a much later
polemic.
2:136 no difference between Taurat, Injil
& the Qur'an
4:136 admonishing the Muslims to
Believe in preceding
scriptures.
5:46-47 Christians must believe in their
scriptures & judge by
them.
5:68
Christians
must stand fast by the
Gospel.
10:94 Muslims, if in doubt ask
those who read the book before
thee.
21:7 apostles were inspired, so Ask
them: they possess the
message.
29:46 don’t dispute with Christians,
believe in their
scriptures
-Qur'an
endorses the Torah and the Gospel.
Why is there no
warning?
2:140
says (of the
Jews), “...who is
more unjust than those who conceal the testimony they
have from Allah...?”
-not a challenge of
corruption but a ringing endorsement to the Bible’s
credibility!
God
does not change His Word (found in both the Qur’an and the
Bible):b) God does not change
His Word:
Qur’an:
10:64 =“No change can there be in the
words
of Allah.”
6:34: “There is
none that can alter the words of Allah,”
(see also Suras
3:2,78; 4:135; 18:26; 35:42;
50:28,29)
Bible:
Deuteronomy 4:1-2; Isaiah 8:20; Matthew 5:17-18; 24:35;
Revelation 22:18-20.
-a recurring theme, so
why would the Bible be
different?
