The historical origins of Islam

The time has long since passed for Muslims and non-Muslims to face reality about the historical origins of Islam rather than continuing to accept the pious myths created many decades after the events they purport to describe. Both Christianity and Judaism began a similar process over 100 years ago. They applied the historical critical method to understand scripture and looked at history and archaeology in an effort to understand their own historical origins.

Traditional Muslims object to any efforts to look behind their origin myths to seek a better understanding of the origins of the faith in history. Perhaps the application of the historical critical method to the Qur'an and a careful look at archaeology and historical documents may give a better insight into the origins of Islam.

Of course, the primary problem in such a project is the complete lack of historical or archaeological material to support the Islamic traditions. Only Islamic sources written 150-200 years after the supposed death of Muhammad support the traditions. No Western historian would take such material seriously if it related to the origins of either Christianity or Judaism.

Perhaps most shocking is the absence of any archaeological or historical evidence to support the existence of Mecca as the leading trading center of Arabia during the 6th and 7th centuries. One finds mention of Mecca and Muhammad only in the Islamic traditions written in the 8th and 9th centuries.