The Hidden Origins of Islam: New Research into Its Early History by Karl-Heinz Ohlig (PDF)

Description

Despite Muhammad’s exalted place in Islam, even today there is still surpisingly little actually known about this shadowy figure and the origins of the Qur’an because of an astounding lack of verifiable biographical material. Furthermore, most of the existing biographical traditions that can be used to substantiate the life of Muhammad date to nearly two centuries after his death, a time when a powerful, expansive, and idealized empire had become synonymous with his name and vision – thus resulting in an exaggerated and often artificial characterization of the prophetic figure coupled with many questionable interpretations of the holy book of Islam.On the basis of datable and localizable artifacts from the seventh and eighth centuries of the Christian era, many of the historical developments, misconceptions, and fallacies of Islam can now be seen in a different light. Excavated coins that predate Islam and the old inscription in the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem utilize symbols used in a documented Syrian Arabic theology – a theology with Christian roots.Interpreting traditional contexts of historical evidence and rereading passages of the Qur’an, the researchers in this thought-provoking volume unveil a surprising – and highly unconventional – picture of the very foundations of Islamic religious history.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: About the Author Karl-Heinz Ohlig is professor emeritus of Religious Studies and the History of Christianity at the University of the Saarland, chairman of the Inarah Institute for Research into the Early History of Islam and the Qur’an, and the author of many books including Weltreligion Islam: Eine Einführung (Islam as World Religion: An Introduction).Gerd-R. Puin, a retired research associate at the University of the Saarland, is an expert on the historical orthography of the Qur’an.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐You have to be able to wade through German scholarship to read these books from Saarland, and be prepared to read or skip over passages written in strange alphabets, but they are much friendlier in English than in the original German! And essential until we get a variorum translation of the Quran that incorporates their research and faces up to its sources on its own. This is a necessary phase to counter Ernst Renan’s famous misconception, that Islam was born in the clear light of history. It wasn’t. Good guess is that Islam developed from a unitarian heresy after Nicaea made trinitarianism mandatory, and that it created its prophet as part of the necessary backstory. Fascinadting detective work by people with a dozen Middle Eastern languages and familiarity with 1000 years of Byzantine (in all senses) history.

⭐I found this book very valuable one . I enjoyed reading it. Volker Popp’s essay is very interesting , providing the theory of Jesus `’ The Muhammad. `’ connecting it with the last essay on Syriac Christianity by Ohlig and Luxenberg’s essay on the Dome of the Rock inscription would make it more interesting. However my Criticism to Popp’s essay is, it didn’t deal with the materials that talks about Muhammad from non -Muslim sources. Yet The Theory provides important points that needs extra work and clarification in order for it to be more establish in the Scholarly world .The book, in conclusion, is extremely good , and it took the prospective that Muhammad didn’t exist. but as I said , it need to answer some question before going further with the theory

⭐Arrived promptly, intact, and as offered. German scholarship well translated.

⭐As a layman, I found the information contained in this book very interesting, particularly in regard to the fact that no historical record exists of any prophet named Muhammad during the period that he supposedly lived. Obviously, any Islamic scholar who has previously just accepted his existence may want to reexamine his or her thoughts on this matter in lieu of this material.As far as the general reader goes, information in many of the chapters is presented in a manner that makes it relatively easy for the layman to understand. However, a few chapters are more difficult as they deal with Arabic and linguistics. Overall, though, this book begins to explain the real origins of Islamic writings while eliciting new questions that require additional scholarly research.

⭐Worth every penny

⭐Great scholastic reading . A must read for anyone who is very into scholastic Islamic investigation . Very top . Oleg Karl ohlig . Great masterpiece for any investigator of Islam and early Islam and uts roots .

⭐The final result of all this must be left to professional historians, yet some of the facts will simply not go away. Following the historic method of Mommsen, the scholars gathered here present some facts that will make your head hurt.Let me first establish the contrast between “traditional Islamic history” and the facts as they appear on the ground.In “traditional Islamic history,” the Khalif Mu’awiyya fought big battles for Islam, and so did his three followers: Abd-el Malik and the rest.Unfortunately, “traditional Islamic history” appears to be a special kind of fiction, because the coins and inscriptions found on the ground make it quite obvious that Mu’awiyya and his three successors had never heard of Muhammad, the Koran, Islam, or the word “Khalif” = “ruler.”What is even worse, they were all Christians!Of course, the history of Arab Christianity — although quite long and interesting — is not something that modern Muslims like to deal with. On the contrary, as in Egypt, they have implemented stringent controls over education, which forbid the teaching of pre-Islamic Egyptian history, which to my mind was much more interesting than the “post-Islamic” history.As a result of this explosive book, we have to face the possibility that Muhammad never existed, that the Koran was pasted together from Syric-Aramaic Christian sources, and that the whole thing was a bundle of bushwah created to defend the now “Islamic” empire.I don’t think you need me to tell you that Muslims will not be “happy” about this book. And I am not qualified to see where all this will go (not being an expert in the partitive gerundial in Syriac.)I would also warn you that this book is Hard. Probably not for beginners.One interesting fact: the collapse of the Sassanian dynasty led to the collapse of Zoroastrianism in Iran. The living religions were Nestorian Christianity and a lot of Buddhism in Eastern Iran.

⭐This book tells of the Christian Background. Disclosure: I read this as part of a History MA, but this book is astounding. Coins from the period after Islam show Islamic symbols showed beside John the Baptist and Jesus, complete with Agnus Dei. Coins use the term Zion as a code as a zionist only would. This book shows that the Qu’ran came to be written nearly 150 years after the death of Muhammad. It also shows a Christian background to early Qu’ranic beliefs.

⭐This collection of essays is very erudite and abstruse. The review that I read in a newspaper led me to think it would be more for a layperson. The first and last essay are more informative, but the middle essays left me way behind.

⭐A bit too advanced for me but definitely a good read for those who are students of the origins of dialects, linguistics and languages. You have to be willing to stay the course to pull out the information you need to establish that before the world even knew about the prophet Mohammed as we know him today; it was all about Jesus (or Muhammadin as he was known to Syriac- Christians) who was acknowledged as the servant of God. But as we know things changed at the council of Nicaea when Emperor Constantine decided to develop an all encompassing world religion and Jesus would now become the son of God. Those in the East (Arabia and Syria in particular) scoffed at the idea that God could have a son because production of offspring is a basic human feature and God is above that. Hence in rebellion to the edict from Emperor Constantine in Rome after the council of Nicaea, those Christians in the East (Arabia and Syria) decided that they would still continue to recognize “Muhammadin” as the servant of God, but as with all things time, movement of peoples, folklore and culture changes things over time and most cases distorts the original concept or idea. Henceforth, with the rise of Arab nationalism we find that Muhammadin evolves or changes into the prophet Mohammed to fall in line with the folklore of wars and conflicts in that region of the world. The book also mentions that there were Qurans written before the Quran that we have today. In all it is a good but a lot to swallow all at once you have to take your time and go through it.

⭐Excellent

⭐L’ouvrage marque une avancée importante dans la connaissance des origines de l’Islam. En particulier, l’article sur les inscription de la coupole de la mosquée du Rocher, à Jérusalem est très intéressant et important pour l’histoire des conceptions musulmanes de la christologie et de la Trinité chrétiennes.

⭐

⭐Ver good condition

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