Muhammad by Robert Spencer

Muhammad

A Critical Biography

Robert Spencer

Bombardier Books · Print & ebook · September 10, 2024

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Who it’s for
Robert Spencer examines contradictions in early Islamic traditions about Muhammad’s life and prophetic career.
Genres
Religious Lives, Islamic History, History of Islam
Published
Bombardier Books, September 10, 2024

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About this book

Muhammad: What can we really know about him? We know a great deal about Muhammad—or so it seems. Islamic tradition contains an astonishing wealth of information about the founding figure of the Islamic faith, and most historians take for granted that this material is generally reliable.

Continue reading

In his latest book, historian and Islamic scholar Robert Spencer shows that there is no agreement in the earliest Islamic sources about the most fundamental details of this towering figure’s life. There are conflicting accounts of key details of his life, including the circumstances and contents of the first revelation he claimed to have received from Allah; the year of his birth; the length of his prophetic career; the name of the angel who supposedly appeared to him; and even his own name. Muhammad: A Critical Biography takes a detailed look at the Islamic traditions regarding Muhammad and lays bare their contradictions, inconsistences, and incoherence. Spencer continues the groundbreaking research he began in The Truth About Muhammad and Did Muhammad Exist?, exposing the shocking reality of how shaky Islam’s foundations really are. He meticulously explains why competing traditions may have been invented and definitively demonstrates that, contrary to the complacency of establishment historians, the Muhammad of Islam is more legend than history, more fable than fact. Muhammad: A Critical Biography does the work that mainstream academics—who are either bought by Saudi Arabia or Qatar, or too afraid to depart from the herd—should have done long ago. Not for the faint-hearted, this book will do nothing less than rock the Islamic world to its very core.

Early Islamic Accounts

Robert Spencer examines contradictions in early Islamic traditions about Muhammad’s life and prophetic career.

Come here for

  • Conflicting early accounts of Muhammad’s revelation, birth year, career, angel, and name.
  • An examination of why competing traditions may have been invented.

Expect

  • A critical look at traditions about Muhammad’s life.
  • Competing accounts of several foundational biographical details.

Where it sits

Islamic History56%
Religious Lives44%
History of Islam41%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • History of Islam
  • Islamic History
Authors
Robert Spencer
Publisher
Bombardier Books
Published
September 10, 2024
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
History of Islam