Hoyland

[ghost]

I see Peter Kirby wrote a summary of Hoyland. When you look at these sources ask yourself this: is this the same Mohammed as in Ibn Hisham? In all cases the answer is no. The point here is that Hoyland is not worth taking at face value.

For example, if and when the words "mahmet"/"muhammad" appear, what evidence is there that these refer to the Mohammed of Ibn Hisham as opposed to just a Christ? Or if and when the word "islam"/"muslim" appears, what evidence is there that this refers to submission/subjugation to God/Allah as opposed to concordance with the Christian writings—proto-Koran included?

http://www.christianorigins.com/islamrefs.html

[Peter Kirby]

It's not a summary of Hoyland. It's excerpts of the translations of the primary sources along with some statements about their provenence or date.

I am not qualified to comment on your contention regarding the development of Islam.

[Duvduv]

If we go one step further and ask, "If the Quran was not written by someone named Mohammed, and is not even a unified text, then WHO wrote it?" we must ALSO ask "WHO had the MEANS, MOTIVE and OPPORTUNITY to put it together as the basis of religion for Arab masses vis a vis the Christian Roman empire?
The only logical answer is that the author(s) was the Abbasid Arab empire of Baghdad which had the MEANS, MOTIVE and OPPORTUNITY.
And WHO invented the myth of Shia origins so widely accepted by the "objective" scholarly world? The answer again is WHO had the MEANS, MOTIVE and OPPORTUNITY?
The answer is the Safavvid Persian leadership in the time of Ismail I which adopted and morphed Islamic ideas with a pre-existing mystical faith of Ali/Hussein worship.

[ghost]

The only logical answer is that the author(s) was the Abbasid Arab empire of Baghdad which had the MEANS, MOTIVE and OPPORTUNITY.

According to Ohlig the proto-Koran was written by Syro-Aramaic-liturgy antitrinitarian Christian Arab monks from Merv in Margiana in opposition to the Assyrian Church of the East. It then spread westward after the collapse of the Sassanids.

The proto-Koran was meant as a deuterocanonical text to the Peshitta and the Diatessaron.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merv_(East ... _Province)
http://assyrianchurch.org