Historical Attestation of Muhammad
Title: Historicity of Muhammad
Introduction
Timeline
The following timeline gives a brief summary of when key artifacts and literary documents, concerning the life of Muhammad and the Qur'an, were first created. Many dates are approximate and noted with a ~.
- 622 Hijrah?
- 633 Death of Muhammad?
- ~634 Doctrina Jacobi : "Prophet who has appeared with the Saracens"
- ~636 Syriac Gospel Fragment : " killing of {the Arabs of} Muhammad (Muhmd)"
- 637 Arab conquest of Jerusalem
- ~639 Sophronius : "Saracen conquests"
- ~640 Thomas the Presbyter : "the Arabs of Muhammad (tayyaye d-Mhmt)"
- 656 First Islamic Civil War- First Fitna. End 661.
- ~660's Sebeos, Bishop Of The Bagratunis : Mentions "Mahmet", gives sparse details of his life
- ~690's John, Bishop of Nikiu : Uses the term "Moslem" and "Mohammed"
- 691 Arab-Sassanian coin : "Muhammad Rasul Allah"
- 692 Dome of the Rock Inscription : "Muhammad" & "Jesus son of Mary", Qur'anic verses
- 696 Reformed Coinage : "Muhammad"
- 761 Ibn Ishaq : Siratu Rasul Allah - first biography. Not extant.
- 776 Graffiti from northern Arabia : Quran - first mention as generic "book"
- 810 Tombstone, Egypt : Quran - first explicit reference
- 826 Muhammad al-Bukhari : Begins Hadith collection. d 870.
- 840 Ibn Hisham - Quotes from Ibn Ishaq's work
- 843 The earliest dated literary papyrus
- 876 Earliest Qur'an Manuscript Fragment - (no later than this date)
Qur'an
Sura Literature
Ibn Ishaq
Ibn Hisham
Hadith
Collection of the Hadith
Science of the Hadith
Historical Methods
Archaeological Evidence
Dome of the Rock Inscription
Arab-Sassanian coins
Reformed Coinage
Non-Muslim Writings
While there are no early Arab texts about the life of the prophet of Islam, we do have copies of non-Muslim (mainly Christian) writings that reference the Arab conquest of the Middle East. These include eye witness testimony to the events that take place in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of the 7th century. While the authors provide limited details on the Arabs that conquered Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, they do provide some interesting insights into how the conquered people of those areas viewed their new rulers. In particular, a few references to a "Muhammad" can be found which dates to the first few decades of the Arab conquests.
Doctrina Jacobi
[Jacob, himself a convert, wrote to encourage Christian faith in Jews of Carthage, forcibly converted in 632, in a tract that was completed before "the thirteenth of July in the seventh indiction," i.e. 634, when Jacob left Carthage. In it his cousin Justus appears telling how he heard of the killing of a member of the imperial guard, or candidatus, in a letter from his brother Abraham in Caesarea, in which the following appears.]
Syriac Gospel Fragment
Sophronius
Thomas the Presbyter
Sebeos, Bishop Of The Bagratunis
John, Bishop of Nikiu
See Also
References
- ↑ Hoyland , Robert "Seeing Islam as Others Saw It", google books. Darwin Press, Incorporated, Jan 1, 1997. [1], christianorigins.com.