Muhammad, Mecca and the Qur'an

The traditional understanding of the origins of Islam teach that about 1400 years ago a poor caravan trader began receiving revelations that ultimately led to the creation of the Qur'an and the religion of Islam in the "full light of history" as famously asserted by 19th century philologist Ernest Renan. Thomas Becket explores the historical record in search of the original Qur'anic community that first heard Muhammad's recitations and carefully preserved his words in memory to be lovingly memorialized in writing shortly after their prophet's death in 632. In doing so, he asks some fundamental questions about the origin of Islam that seem ignored by the scholars: Why would anyone write the scriptures for a new religion in the Arabic of the 7th century? "Why would a believing community create no exegetical literature for 200 years following the delivery of the literal word of Allah to that community?" "Why would that community fail to develop an adequate alphabet capable of rendering a stable Qur'anic text for 200 years after its revelation?" Why would the Islamic conquerors create no written record of their conquests until the 9th century? "Why would Christian sources throughout the conquered territories uniformly fail to mention Muslim conquerors, Muhammad, the Qur'an or Islam during the 200-year period?" Why would the original founder of Mecca have created a city that required the importation of all food, water and forage over long distances from the very first day? Why did a city of Mecca's importance not leave historical tracks outside of the "partisan Muslim literary material"? In pursuing answers to these and other basic questions, Becket delves deeply into the scholarly literature in search of historical or archaeological evidence to support the traditional understanding of Muhammad, the original Qur'anic community and the origins of the Qur'an. Instead, he finds that Western scholars admit that no such evidence exists and that they must rely on the Islamic traditions written almost 200 years after the purported events they claim to describe. While the readily available Islamic traditions present extremely detailed transcripts of conversations and descriptions of the actions of Muhammed and his early followers, their historicity seems greatly in doubt. The author also finds that the available historical and archaeological evidence generally contradicts the traditional understanding of the Islamic traditions. For example, surviving evidence clearly supports the presence of Christianity throughout the Arabian Peninsula from the 4th century while the Islamic traditions describe this as being a time of ignorance and polytheism until the coming of Muhammad in the 7th century. Despite these recognized shortcomings of the Islamic traditions, most Western historians accept their historicity on a limited basis and assume that they preserve the memories of the original Qur'anic community of Muhammad and his followers in Mecca and Medina. The Qur'an itself also provides important insights into the nature of the audience needed to understand and accept it and the historical circumstances of its writing. Thus, in his search for the original Qur'anic community, Becket compares the characteristics of an audience needed to understand the Qur'an as described by Western scholars to that of Muhammad and his early followers as described in the Islamic traditions. To the extent that the Islamic traditions reflect historical events of the origin of the Qur'an, the two Qur'anic communities should share the same characteristics. Becket's search for the original Qur'anic community provides important insights into the historicity of the Islamic traditions that provide the foundation for Western scholars' history of the origin of Islam and a fresh perspective on the historical events of the period of the origin of the Qur'an and Islam.