robert spencer-did muhammad exist__ an inquiry into islams obscure origins-intercollegiate studies institute (2012) (1)

Jesus, the Muhammad
Muhammad: A Late Arrival on the Scene
Non-Muslim chroniclers who were writing at the time of the early Arabian conquests made no mention of
the Qur'an, no mention of Islam, no mention of Muslims, and scant mention of Muhammad.
The situation is no different when one turns to the contemporary Muslim artifacts of the time. The
Arabian invaders who swept into North Africa in the 650s and 660s and besieged Constantinople in the
670s were energized, in the traditional view, by the Qur'an and Muhammad's teaching and example. But
they made no mention of what was supposed to be their primary inspiration. References to Qur'anic
passages and Islam do not appear until near the end of the seventh century, and when the Arabian invaders
mentioned Muhammad, they did so in ways that departed significantly from the canonical Islamic account.
For example, in 677 or 678, during the reign of the first Umayyad caliph, Muawiya (661–680), a dam
was dedicated near Ta'if in Arabia. (The Umayyads were the dynasty that ruled the Near East from the
middle of the seventh century to the middle of the eighth.) The official inscription reads:
This is the dam [belonging] to the Servant of God Muawiya
Commander of the Faithful. Abdullah bn Saxr 1 built it
with God's permission in the year 58.
Allah! Forgive the Servant of God Muawiya,
Commander of the Faithful, confirm him in his position and help him and
let the faithful
rejoice in him. Amr bn Habbab/Jnab wrote it. 2
Muawiya is the “Commander of the Faithful,” but the nature of the faith, besides being faith in Allah, is
left undefined. There is no hint of the Islamic religious culture that would soon and ever after be allpervasive
in inscriptions like this one and other official proclamations. 3 Exactly what Muawiya did
believe in is unclear, but if he believed that Muhammad was the prophet of Allah and the Qur'an was
Allah's book delivered to mankind by means of that prophet, he gave no indication of it.
Likewise the official inscription on a canal bridge in Fustat in Egypt, dating from the year 688, reads:
“This is the arch which Abd al-Aziz bn Marwan, the Emir, ordered to be built. Allah! Bless him in all his
deeds, confirm his authority as You please, and make him very satisfied in himself and his household,
Amen! Sa'd Abu Uthman built it and Abd ar-Rahman wrote it in the month Safar of the year 69.” 4 Here
again, no Muhammad, no Qur'an, no Islam.
One of the best records of the worldview of the conquerors is found in the coins they struck. Coins
carry official sanction and bear inscriptions that generally reflect the foundational principles of the polity
that struck them. In the Islamic world today it is difficult to go very long through any given day without