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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2022
I’ve now read two of Robert Spencer’s books, this was the first, with the other being ‘The History of Jihad’. I’m patiently waiting for “The Critical Qur’an” to arrive, which I have on pre-order. This book has 25 pages of Endnotes backing up his work with a very helpful index. It consists of 13 chapters.
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.
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.
