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Did Muhammad Exist?: An Inquiry into Islam’s Obscure Origins—Revised and Expanded Edition Paperback – May 8, 2024
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Is there any sound historical evidence that the prophet of Islam actually existed, or is the entire story of Muhammad fable or fiction?
It is a question that few have thought—or dared—to ask. Virtually everyone, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, takes for granted that the prophet of Islam lived as a prophet, as well as a political and military leader, in seventh-century Arabia.
But this widely accepted story begins to crumble on close examination. In his blockbuster New York Times bestseller The Truth about Muhammad, historian and Islam expert Robert Spencer revealed the often shocking contents of Islamic teachings about Muhammad. Now, in this newly revised and expanded version of Did Muhammad Exist?, he lays bare those teachings’ surprisingly shaky historical foundations.
This updated and enlarged version of this acclaimed book examines even more striking and compelling evidence that the story of Muhammad, who for so long was assumed to have lived in the “full light of history,” could be more myth and legend than historical fact.
Spencer meticulously examines historical records and archaeological findings, pioneering new scholarship to reconstruct what we can know about Muhammad, the Qur’an, and the early days of Islam. The evidence he presents challenges the most fundamental assumptions about Islam’s origins.
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateMay 8, 2024
- Dimensions6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
- ISBN-13979-8888457955
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Product details
- ASIN : B0D3QX6Q4J
- Publisher : Bombardier Books (May 8, 2024)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 320 pages
- ISBN-13 : 979-8888457955
- Item Weight : 1.21 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #651,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #28 in Saudi Arabia History
- #131 in Muhammed in Islam
- #268 in History of Islam
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About the author
ROBERT SPENCER is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is the author of twenty-eight books, including the New York Times bestsellers "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)" (Regnery Publishing) and "The Truth About Muhammad" (Regnery Publishing) and the bestsellers "The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS" (Bombardier Books) and "The Critical Qur’an: Explained from Key Islamic Commentaries and Contemporary Historical Research" (Bombardier Books). His forthcoming book is "Muhammad: A Critical Biography" (Bombardier Books).
Spencer has led seminars on Islam and jihad for the FBI, the United States Central Command, United States Army Command and General Staff College, the U.S. Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group, the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), the Justice Department’s Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council and the U.S. intelligence community. He has discussed jihad, Islam, and terrorism at a workshop sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the German Foreign Ministry. He is a senior fellow with the Center for Security Policy.
Spencer is a regular columnist for PJ Media and FrontPage Magazine, and has written many hundreds of articles about jihad and Islamic terrorism. His articles on Islam and other topics have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, the New York Post, the Washington Times, the Dallas Morning News, Fox News Opinion, National Review, The Federalist, Human Events, American Greatness, The Hill, the Detroit New, Real Clear Religion, the Daily Caller, the New Criterion, the Journal of International Security Affairs, the UK’s Guardian, Canada’s National Post, Middle East Quarterly, WorldNet Daily, First Things, Insight in the News, World Israel News, Aleteia, and many other journals. He has also served as a contributing writer to the Investigative Project on Terrorism and as an Adjunct Fellow with the Free Congress Foundation.
Spencer has appeared on the BBC, ABC News, CNN, OANN, Newsmax, Steve Bannon’s War Room, FoxNews’s Tucker Carlson Show, the Sean Hannity Show, the Ingraham Angle, the O’Reilly Factor, Megyn Kelly’s The Kelly File, Geraldo Rivera Reports, the Glenn Beck Show, Fox and Friends, America’s News HQ and many other Fox programs, PBS, MSNBC, CNBC, C-Span, CTV News, Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News, France24, Voice of Russia and Croatia National Television (HTV), as well as on numerous radio programs including The Sean Hannity Show, Bill O’Reilly’s Radio Factor, The Mark Levin Show, The Laura Ingraham Show, The Herman Cain Show, The Joe Piscopo Show, The Howie Carr Show, The Curt Schilling Show, Bill Bennett’s Morning in America, Michael Savage’s Savage Nation, The Alan Colmes Show, The G. Gordon Liddy Show, The Neal Boortz Show, The Michael Medved Show, The Michael Reagan Show, The Larry Elder Show, The Peter Boyles Show, Vatican Radio, and many others.
Robert Spencer has been a featured speaker at the University of California-Irvine, Temple University, Dartmouth College, Penn State University, the University of California-Los Angeles, Stanford University, New York University, Brown University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Virginia, State University of New York-Binghamton, State University of New York-Stony Brook, Florida State University, DePaul University, the College of William and Mary, Washington University of St. Louis, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Boise State University, Cal Poly, Portland State University, and many other colleges and universities. He has also addressed the Heritage Foundation, Westminster Institute, the Gatestone Institute, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance in New York City, the Hudson Institute, the Temple of the Arts in Los Angeles, the San Diego Jewish Book Fair, the Christian Rights and Freedom Institute, the Young Presidents’ Organization, Calvary Chapel Pacific Coast, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), FreedomFest, Young America’s Foundation, Hershey’s Sweet Retreat, the John W. Pope Civitas Institute, the Conservative Forum of Silicon Valley, Train the Trainer, and many other audiences.
A complete listing of Robert Spencer’s books:
1. Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World’s Fastest Growing Faith (Encounter Books, 2002)
2. Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West (Regnery Publishing, 2003)
3. Inside Islam (with Daniel Ali) (Ascension Press, 2003)
4. The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims (Prometheus Books, 2004)
5. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) (Regnery Publishing, 2005)
6. The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion (Regnery Publishing, 2006)
7. Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn’t (Regnery Publishing, 2007)
8. Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs (Regnery Publishing, 2008)
9. The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran (Regnery Publishing, 2009)
10. The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War On America (with Pamela Geller) (Threshold Editions/Simon & Schuster, 2010)
11. Did Muhammad Exist? An Inquiry Into Islam’s Obscure Origins (ISI Books, 2011)
12. Not Peace But A Sword: The Great Chasm Between Christianity and Islam (CA Press, 2013)
13. Arab Winter Comes to America: The Truth About the War We’re In (Regnery Publishing, 2014)
14. The Complete Infidel’s Guide to ISIS (Regnery Publishing, 2015)
15. The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran (Regnery Publishing, 2016)
16. The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Free Speech (and Its Enemies) (Regnery Publishing, 2017)
17. Confessions of an Islamophobe (Bombardier Books, 2017)
18. The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS (Bombardier Books, 2018)
19. The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process (Bombardier Books, 2019)
20. Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look at Who Is Best, Who Is Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster (Bombardier Books, 2020)
21. Mass Migration in Europe: A Model for the U.S.? (Center for Security Policy Press, 2020)
22. Islamophobia and the Threat to Free Speech (Center for Security Policy Press, 2021)
–. Did Muhammad Exist? An Inquiry Into Islam’s Obscure Origins — Revised and Expanded Edition (Bombardier Books, 2021)
23. The Critical Qur’an: Explained from Key Islamic Commentaries and Contemporary Historical Research (Bombardier Books, 2022)
24. The Church and the Pope (Uncut Mountain Press, 2022)
25. Who Lost Afghanistan? (Center for Security Policy Press, 2022)
26. The Sumter Gambit: How the Left Is Trying to Foment a Civil War (Bombardier Books, 2023)
27. Empire of God: How the Byzantines Saved Civilization (Bombardier Books, 2023)
28. Muhammad: A Critical Biography (Bombardier Books, 2024)
Spencer’s books have been translated into many languages, including Spanish, Italian, German, Finnish, Korean, Polish, Portuguese and Bahasa Indonesia.
Spencer (MA, Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) has been studying Islamic theology, law, and history in depth since 1980.
What They’re Saying About Robert Spencer
“My comrade-in-arms, my pal, my buddy.” — Oriana Fallaci
“A hero of our times and one of the bravest defenders of liberty that I have ever met.” — Geert Wilders
“No one has upset the Islamophobia cabal more than Robert Spencer. First, he knows more about Islamic doctrine than they do. Next, he has outed all the tricks they use in their taqiyyah bag to disinform the public. Finally, and most importantly, Robert will not be cowed.” — Ayaan Hirsi Ali
“One of the top two or three experts in the world on this great war…against fundamental Islam. One of the top two or three experts in this nation about trying to suppress speech. People should know that Robert Spencer has been the tip of the spear in warning America, in fighting against radical Islamic jihad, not just here in this country – where you’ve done an amazing job – but throughout the world. Robert, you’re one of the true patriots in this country, and you’ve risked so much, including your life, your fortune, and your sacred honor, and your pursuit of happiness. You’re a great patriot to this country.” — Stephen K. Bannon, former Trump Administration Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor
“One of the most important writers living today…his books should be required reading.” — Dennis Prager
“A brave crusader against the dopier multiculti illusions.” — Mark Steyn
“I highly recommend that you listen to this guy.” — Glenn Beck
“A very savvy and knowledgeable critic.” – Dinesh D’Souza
“One of the most acclaimed counter-jihad scholars.” — Asian Tribune
“J’apprécie beaucoup ce que vous écrivez sur l’Islam.” — Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, S.J., internationally renowned Islamic scholar
“Robert Spencer incarnates intellectual courage when, all over the world, governments, intellectuals, churches, universities and media crawl under a hegemonic Universal Caliphate’s New Order. His achievement in the battle for the survival of free speech and dignity of man will remain as a fundamental monument to the love of, and the self-sacrifice for, liberty.” — Bat Ye’or
“A leader in this war for over a decade, documenting not just what is happening but explaining why.” — PJ Media
“A leading figure of the conservative movement in the US.” — Limerick Leader (Ireland)
“Distinguished scholar.” — Akbar Ahmed, Ibn-e-Khaldoon chair of Islamic Studies, American University, Washington, D.C.
“One of the most insightful and learned scholars of Islam.” — Catholic Insight
“Robert Spencer is indefatigable. He is keeping up the good fight long after many have already given up. I do not know what we would do without him. I appreciate all the intelligence and courage it takes to keep going despite the appeasement of the West.” — Ibn Warraq
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His bullet points called ‘A Revisionist Scenario” in the last chapter was one of my favorite parts of the book because he offers over two pages of quick hitting reminders of what we know about the traditional account of Muhammad’s life and the early days of Islam.
I honestly don’t know how you can remain a Muslim after reading this book, it’s just that damning. Whether it’s the fact that Mecca is nowhere on a map until hundreds of years after the supposed death of Muhammad, the fact that not only the greater part of the religious vocabulary, but also the cultural vocabulary of the Qur’an is of non-Arabic origin, mosques not pointing toward Mecca but rather towards Petra, Hadith literature proliferating over two hundred years after the supposed death of Muhammad, Islam or the Qur’an not mentioned on coins for the first six decades of Arab conquest, the Qur’an containing numerous characters and stories lifted directly from Christianity, Judaism and other sources, etc.. I could go on and on.
In short, this book is required reading and I highly recommend it.
The weakness of the book is that the author isn’t fluent in languages like classical Arabic and Syriac. Much of the work depends on arguments about the usage and meaning of words in languages the author doesn’t know. How does he know for certain that the scholarship of authors such as Christoph Luxenberg are ultimately correct? Others will say Mr. Spencer needs a degree in the subject of Islam. This doesn’t bother me as much as not knowing the languages when so much of the book is about the translation of words. I also felt like the author slips in polemics at times (discussing the violent aspects of Islam that aren’t relevant to the subject of the book.) Because of the author’s background, unfortunately Muslims (who are the ones who really need to read this book) will most likely dismiss the book and only the author’s regular readership will read it. I also felt that Mr. Spencer did have an agenda of viewing the evidence for Muhammad’s existence in the harshest light and taking the position of the most revisionist scholarship. Still, the book is worth reading because there is so little of this scholarship (aside from Ibn Warraq) presented for a general audience. The ultimate takeaway point isn’t really whether or not Muhammad existed. It is that there are obvious holes in the orthodox tale of Islam’s origins and there needs to be further investigation. Academic scholars need to stop treating the origins of Islam with kid gloves. Disseminating this scholarship to the wider Islamic world could also have a profound effect just like critical scholarship of Christianity and Judaism ultimately led to positive political and social change in Europe.
The book begins with remarks by several other scholars of Islam. They mention reasons for doubting the orthodox version of Islam origins. There are interesting insights but they tend to be all over the place so it is hard to remember them and didn’t seem to be incorporated into the actual book. The first chapter discusses the history of scholarship that is critical of the story of early Islam and some of the problems associated with reconstructing the life of Muhammad. The biggest problem being that Islam hasn’t been scrutinized on the same level as Judaism and Christianity has by scholars. Another is that most of the Islamic sources were written or compiled after the traditional timeline of Muhammad’s life and the Arab conquests. In the second chapter, Mr. Spencer discusses the earliest mentions of Muhammad in Muslim and non-Muslim sources (most of which are associated with chronicling the Arab conquests.) For instance, although Muslims believe that the Qur’an is a text of God’s revelation to Muhammad, the Qur’an rarely actually mentions a person named Muhammad. The author also claims that Muhammad can also be read as an honorific title (meaning “The Praised One”.) Not knowing Arabic and the history of the usage of this term I will have to leave it to the scholars to decide whether this is true or not. One problem I had with the author’s discussion of the non-Muslim works is that he doesn’t engage in a broader discussion about if these sources can be trusted. Every student of ancient history knows that most historical texts are driven by the author’s agenda and that the modern idea of dispassionate scholarly analysis did not exist yet. Although, Mr. Spencer seems to dismiss the earliest mentions of Muhammad, I still feel like we can see a general trend about what a possible early Muhammad may have been. It is impossible to know much about his careers as a prophet and a statesman, but it seems that if he existed, he was associated with uncompromising monotheism (which is one of the central tenets of Islam.) There is also mention of Muhammad and the early Muslims being associated with believing in Jesus as a prophet and not being divine (another belief of orthodox Islam.) One theory advanced in the book is that the Muslims were originally a non-trinitarian sect of Christianity. The author also advances the theory that most of what became Islam was developed after the Arab conquests when the Arabs settled down and needed a new ideology to discover their new empire.
In the next chapter, the author further develops the idea that the early Muslims may have been Christian. For instance, early coins in the Arab empire showed crosses and did not mention anything about Islam. As also developed later, some scholars think that the Qur’an contains an earlier substratum of literature that was originally Christian (Christoph Luxenberg.) Mr. Spencer then goes onto show that the earlier Islamic sources (namely the hadith and the sira-biography) were written after the life of Muhammad and were usually created to settle the theological and political debates of early Islamic empire. Even if we take these works as the truth, they still contain contradictory claims about Muhammad (for example, some say Muhmmad performed miracles and others say he didn’t.) In chapter 6, the author discusses scholarship which even questions whether Mecca was a central trading and religious site in the ancient world. This is of course important because Mecca is central to the story of Muhammad’s life and is the holiest site in Islam. Evidently, no non-Muslim sources contemporaneous to Muhammad’s life mention Mecca as a major site and a reading of the map shows that it would make an odd location for East to West trade (South to North makes sense though.) Dan Gibson also states that he found Qiblas (the mark in Mosques which today show the way to pray towards Mecca) in early Mosques which pointed towards Petra, Jordan. Mr. Spencer also makes the argument that some material on Islam presents Muhammad in a bad light as a warrior. Why would Muslims present an unflattering image of their prophet? It is here where I feel like the author slips into unneeded polemics. The book ends with chapters on the critical scholarship which challenges the idea that the Qur’an was perfectly handed down from Muhmmad to the present day. This scholarship is very interesting, but it isn’t really relevant to the question of Muhammad’s existence. Also, as I stated above, a lot of this scholarship is about the translation of texts (for instance, one theory is that parts of the Qur’an don’t make sense in Arabic and need to be translated in Syriac to make sense) yet Mr. Spencer does not know these languages. How can he truly evaluate these arguments?
Another minor criticism is that the book should have had a bibliography at the end. When you look at a footnote that is shorthand, it is hard to have to try and find the full citation elsewhere in the footnotes. Still, even with my criticisms I recommend the book for anyone who is curious about the origins of Islam from a critical perspective. I think the evidence shows that there probably was a Muhammad. Like a historical Jesus, it is very hard to say with strict certainty what he did or taught. If he did exist, it seems he was associated with a strict monotheism that came out of the traditions of Judaism and Christianity. As with the origins of Judaism and Christianity, the more relevant question may be not did Muhammad exist or not but what did the earliest Muslims believe? That is an inquiry that may be easier for scholars to answer.
Top reviews from other countries
Deserves more analysis.
Feels like everyone knows the truth but can't say it.