An Analysis of the Quran in the
Light of Documented History
By Dr. Rafat Amari
To
begin well
address the question, What
is documented history?
History is based on
documented narration which is information provided by historians through what
they wrote in books during the times in which they lived.
One
example of documented narration is the writings of the Greek historian,
Herodotus, who was born in Asia Minor and lived in the 5th century
B.C.
Still
others who contributed to documenting history are written records or chronicles
of kings and nations. The chronicles of the Assyrians, Chaldeans and Persians
are especially helpful. The most ancient chronicles come from the Assyrians and
date back to the 7th or 8th centuries B.C. These sources would be enough in
themselves, but we have more resources for documenting history, including the
annals and the inscriptions on stones and other archaeological findings.
It is
true we have all of these resources to validate ancient history, but the single
most reliable resource is the Bible. The books of the Bible were written by
various prophets who lived at various times. Moreover, they were inspired by
God to ensure accuracy. Most of the inspired writers of the Old
Testament lived and wrote before the historians themselves.
The
first Biblical writer was Moses who lived in the 15th century B.C. Moses
chronicled the nations as they branched and grew from Noah's sons after the
flood. Moses
writings make up Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Though in the past,
scholars doubted some of the Biblical narrations, today, we have found
archaeological discoveries which confirm the historical accuracy of the Bible.
Although the Bible covers a period in history where there were no historians,
archaeology has increased our knowledge through its excavations in different
sites throughout the
On the
other hand, Islam does not have a single resource to document its claims.
Mohammed wrote in the 7th century A.D., a long time after the documented
histories which had preceded him. He never presented a chronology of history
like we find in the Bible because he never had one. All he had were stories
which he mixed with the personalities he borrowed from the Bible. In some
cases, Mohammed inserted these accounts in other time periods hundreds, and
sometimes thousands, of years from the time in which those personalities lived.
For example, he placed Haman, the prime minister of the Persian
king, Ahasuerus, and the
Pharaoh said, O people, I know no god except me. Therefore, Oh Haman, light me a
kiln to bake bricks out of clay and build me a lofty tower, that I may mount up
to see the God of Moses because I think Moses is a liar.
Mohammed borrowed this story from Genesis, 11:3, 4. After the
flood:
They said to each other, Come, let's make bricks and
bake them thoroughly. They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they
said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to
the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over
the face of the whole earth.
We know that the Pharaohs never built towers which were
characteristic of the towers of
Mohammed Applied the Name Samaritan to the Time of Moses, Even
Though the Samaritans did not Appear Before the 6th Century B.C.
One example of a misapplied title is found in Mohammeds
narration concerning the golden calf, which the book of Exodus says Aaron made
in the wilderness. This occurred when Moses went to the mountain to receive the
Ten Commandments. Due to pressure from the Israelites who saw that Moses was
delayed for 40 days, Aaron submitted to the Israelites demands and made the golden
calf idol for them to worship. Mohammed reported the event in Surah Ta Ha
20:85-97 when he wrote:
Allah said, We have seduced your people in your absence. The Samaritan had led
them astray. Moses returned to his people in a state of anger and sorrow. He
said to them, Oh people, did not your lord make a good promise to you? Did the
promise seem too long for you, or did you want the wrath to come down on you
from the lord, and so you broke your promise to me?
They said, We broke not the promise to you, as far as it lay in our power,
but we were made to carry the weight of the ornaments of the people, and we
threw them into the fire, and thats what the Samaritan threw.
Then he brought a lowing calf before them. So they said, This is your god and the god
of Moses.
Then Moses said, What is the matter with you, O Samaritan? He replied: I saw
what they saw not, so that I took a handful of dust from the footprint of the
Apostle, and threw it into the calf
Go Moses said to him. Your punishment in this life
will be that you will say, 'Touch me not.' And you will have a day of
punishment that will not fail. So look to your God from whom you have gone
astray and whom you have worshipped.
When Mohammed attributed these words to the Samaritan, he
certainly had had Simon, the Samaritan magician in the book of the Acts of the
Apostles, in mind. Simon deceived the people of the city of
The city of Samaria was built by Omri, King of Israel, around the
year 880 B.C., but the name Samaritans was not coined until the 6th century B.C. when it was given to
the people whom the Assyrians brought to Samaria after Sargon II occupied the
city in year 721 B.C. Mohammed, who was ignorant of the history of the
Samaritans, was caught in a major historical mistake.
Mohammed in the Quran Confused Mary, the Mother of Jesus, with Mary, the Sister of
Aaron and Moses
Another example of Mohammeds confusion of the
historical facts was in the Biblical chronology concerning Mary. Mohammed was
misled by the Mandaeans when he considered Mary, the mother of Jesus, to be
Mary, the sister of Aaron and Moses mentioned in the Bible. Mary, the mother of
Jesus, in Arabic is called Miriam, the same name as the sister of Aaron and
Moses as found in Numbers 26:59. In Sura Maryam 19 :28, the text addresses
Mary, the mother of Jesus, Oh sister of Aaron, your father was not a man of evil, nor your
mother a woman unchaste.
Mohammed intended in this Quranic verse to show that
Mary, the mother of Jesus, was the same Mary who was the sister of Aaron and
Moses. This is confirmed in another Surah in which Mohammed contends that
Jochebed, the wife of Amram, who was the father of Aaron and Moses, dedicated
Mary, the mother of Jesus, when she was born. This we read in Surah 3 al-IImran:
35 and 36:
Oh my lord I am delivered of a female child. And Allah knew best what
she brought forth. In no way is the male like the female. And I have named her
Mary.
Mohammed made these statements even though Mary, the sister of
Aaron and the daughter of Amram, was born near the end of the 16th century B.C,
while Mary, the mother of Jesus, was born between 26 and 20 B.C.
Mohammeds confusion resulted from the fact that he was misled by the
Mandaeans, a sect that appeared for the first time in
was placed in the womb of Mary, a daughter of Moses. He was hidden
in her womb for nine months. When the nine months were fulfilled, she entered
labor and brought forth the Messiah.[1][1]
Mohammed was called a Sabian by his co-citizens. For example, on
his return from one of his campaigns, he was thirsty. His companions asked a
woman who carried a water skin to carry water for him. The woman asked, Where? They said To the prophet of Allah, to which she replied, To that one who is called a
Sabian? and they answered, Exactly, to the one you call a Sabian. The woman returned to
When Hasin, the father of a Muslim named Umran, became
Muslim, the tribe of Quraish said he
Not only did the tribe of Quraish make this judgment, but other
Arabian tribes followed suit as well. A man named Labeid went to visit Mohammed
and became a Muslim. He returned to Bani Amer, his tribe, doing ablutions,
which were ceremonial washings like the Sabians performed. He adopted Sabian
slogans such as the cry, Allah Akber, which means, Allah is greater. Labeid began bowing and
kneeling like the Sabians, praying like them and saying the Fatihah. All
the rituals of prayer known to the Arabians as Sabian rituals became
incorporated into Islam. Sirafa Bin Auf Bin al- Ahwas, the poet of the tribe of
Bani Amer, saw Labeids Sabian rituals and mocked him in a poem in which he described
Labeid as one who came to them with the religion of the Sabians.[7][7]
Confusion on the Timing of the Tribes of Ad
and Thamud
Another example which shows Mohammeds ignorance of historical
chronology is where he placed the Arabian tribes of Ad and Thamud. Ad was a
small Arabian tribe which lived in northern Arabia in the 2nd century A.D.
Claudius Ptolemy of
Mohammed claimed members of this tribe inhabited of the earth in
the second generation after Noah. We read in Surah al-A'raf 7, 69:
Call to your remembrance that he made you inheritors after the
people of Noah, and gave you a stature tall among the nations.
And in Sura 23:32:
Then we raised another generation after them - by which he means
after the people who died in the flood at the time of Noah - and we sent a
messenger to them from among themselves saying Worship Allah.
Mohammed claimed that the tribe of Ad was destroyed by a cloud or
wind that Allah brought against it.
The
phrase stature
tall among the nations
in Sura 7:69 indicates that Mohammed was influenced by Manichean literature,
which claimed that the people who lived on earth at the time of the flood were
giants, very tall in stature. Mani, the founder of Manicheism, wrote a book
which he entitled The
Giants.
We also find this idea in other Gnostic literature embraced by the
Manicheans in the 4th century A.D. In 1 Enoch we read that the angels married
the human women and
the women became pregnant and bore great giants, having heights of three
thousand cubits.[8][8] (about 4,500 feet). The idea in the Quran of the two angels Harut and Marut who
came down to Babel and taught magic to people is taken from the book of Giant
of Mani[9][9] The connection between Mohammed and the Manicheans is
affirmed by the fact that many people in the tribe of Quraish,
from which Mohammed came, embraced Manicheism. The Manicheans were called
Zandik at
Mohammed
created a dilemma for Muslims by placing the Arabian tribes, Ad and Thamud, in a period connected with that of Noah, that
is 5000 6000 B.C., so they searched for a
remedy or a way out from this problem. The first Muslim
who proposed a remedy for this contradiction was Ibn Ishak, who died around 774
A.D. (152 years after Mohammed's emigration to
Ibn Ishak was considered by the educated
people of his time as one who
fabricates false genealogies
and as a liar
and deceiver. Since no one before him had mentioned such
modified genealogies, his educated Islamic contemporaries considered him to be
a false historian. Yet, in the generations which followed Ibn Ishak's writings
became the foundation for a new history which backs the Qur'an. Based on the
genealogy that Ibn Ishak invented, Ibn Khaldun (A.D. 1332-1406) claimed that Ad
occupied the south of Arabia and part of western
Muslims
today look to Surah 50, verse 50, where it says he destroyed the ancient Ad,
to claim that there were two Ads: the ancient one (which they placed in
southern Arabia) and another Ad that appeared in the north in the area of the
Muslims
also look to Surah 46, verse 21, where it is mentioned mention the brother of Ad who warned his
people about the winding Sandtracts; in Arabic the winding sand tracts is Ahqaf. They say the first Ad lived
in Al-Ahqaf, which they considered as a place in southern Arabia in the
The
earlier Islamic writers understood the word of Ahqaf not as a place but as
windy sand. Among these writers I mention al-Feiruzabadi.[14][14]
The
Qur'an intended in this ancient Ad a place in northern
To the Thamud we sent Salih, one of their brothers
Remember
how he made you inheritors after the Ad people and gave you habitation in the
land, you build for yourselves palaces and castles in the plains and hew homes
from the mountains.
It is
clear that Mohammed placed this ancient Ad (which he placed after Noah) in the
area where houses were hewed in the rocks which in Surah
al-Hijr 15:80 he specified that the area was the city Hegra (known also as
Hijr):
The inhabitants of Hijr have rejected the messengers. We sent them
our signs, but they turned away from them. Out of mountains they hewed homes
where they were safe. But the cry seized them one morning and gave them no
avail.
We know
Hegra is in north western
Muslim
writers claim the "ancient Ad" lived in southern
Serious Historical Mistakes of Mohammed
About the Tribe of Thamud
This
brings us to the tribe of Thamud. Mohammed claimed the inhabitants of Hegra, a
city built in the 1st century B.C. whose houses were hewn from the rock by the
Nabataeans, were Thamudic. Mohammed placed them in the third generation of
history after the people of the flood, immediately after Ad and Noah. He also
claimed that they would be removed from history through a magical cry. Verses 73 and 74 of Surah7 al-A'raf tell us:
To the Thamud we sent Salih, one of their brothers
Remember how he made you inheritors after the Ad people and gave you habitation
in the land, you build for yourselves palaces and castles in the plains and hew
homes from the mountains.
Historically, Thamud was an Arabian tribe that did not appear
before the 8th century B.C. During the end of that period, they attacked the
Assyrian borders with other Arabian tribes, and they were defeated by Sargon II
who brought some of them to live in
Mohammed in Surah al-Hijr 15:80 placed them as inhabitants of an
Arabian city called Hegra. I quote again the verse:
The inhabitants of Hijr have rejected the messengers. We sent them
our signs, but they turned away from them. Out of mountains they hewed homes
where they were safe. But the cry seized them one morning and gave them no
avail.
At the time of Mohammed, Hegra was called Hijr. Today the term
Hijr is still used for the ruins of Hegra. Hegra is about 24 kilometers
from the old city of
Mohammed attributed this city and its construction to the Thamud
tribe even though the Thamud never hewed their houses in rocks as did the
Nabataeans, though some Thamuds lived in tents in the city when the tribe
flourished after the Christian era began. What happened to the tribe of Thamud?
Mohammed claimed that they were judged through a cry, and removed from history
as we see in Sura Hud 11: 67, 68:
The cry overtook the wrongdoers, and they lay prostrate in their
homes before morning. As if they never dwelt and flourished there. Behold, the
Thamud were removed.
Yet we know Thamud continued to live as an organized tribe until
the 5th century A.D.
THE
CASE OF THE MIDIANITES
Mohammed placed the Midianites close to the time of
The Thamuds were not the only people for whom Mohammed claimed
extinction. Mohammed placed the Midianites close to the time of
Oh my people. Let not my dissent with you cause you to suffer a
fate similar to what occurred to the people of Noah or of Hud
or of
Salih nor are the people of Lut far off from you.
Hud and
Salih were the name of prophets Mohammed assigned to the tribes of Ad and
Thamud. He dated Midian very close to Gods
judgment of Lut, only one or two generations from the destruction of
The Bible tells a different story. The Midianites came from
Keturah, whom Abraham married after Sarah died as reported in Genesis 25:1-6:
Abraham again took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she
bore him Zimran, Jokshan,
It was not until the 18th century B.C. that the descendants of
Midian became a nation.
Heres Mohammeds account from Surah Hud 11: 94, 95 where we read about the cry
that removed the Midianites from history:
The cry seized the wrongdoers and they lay prostrate in their
houses in the morning. As if they had never dwelt and flourished there. Behold,
this is how the Midianites were removed just as were the Thamud were removed.
Removing the Midianites from history at a time close to when Lut
lived shows how Mohammed simply dealt promptly and quickly with
the people of the world by using magical cries. He was completely ignorant of
their history. Not only did he display total ignorance about the chronology of
the people as to when they appeared in history, but he also completely removed
nations from history who lived close to his time. He claimed that they had been
exterminated in ancient times.
On the other hand, the Bible tells us a lot about Midian. Moses
lived among them 40 years when he was in south Sinai. He married a Midianite
woman. Though he had contacts with Jethro, his father-in-law who was a priest
of the Midianites, Moses never reported what the Quran alleges to be the extermination
of the tribe of Midian. Nor did Moses ever mention Shuyeb, the prophet which
Mohammed said was sent to the people of Midian. History tells us the Midianites
continued to exist in the Sinai and north
Mohammed In the Quran Claimed a Magical Cry
Destroyed the City of
The use
of a cry to destroy people and to remove them from history was used by Mohammed
in the Quran
to exterminate the people of
By way
of a parable, I set forth the story of the inhabitants of the city. Then the
messengers came to it. We sent to them two messengers whom they rejected, but
we strengthened those two with a third. They said to the inhabitants, We have been sent on a mission to you. The people replied, You are only men like ourselves, and the
Rahman sent no sort of revelation. You do nothing but lie. They replied, Our lord does know that we have been
sent on a mission to you, and our duty is only to proclaim the clear message. The people replied, for us, we conjured an evil omen from
you. If you desist not, we will certainly stone you and we will inflict a
grievous punishment on you.
The
reporters of the Hadith of Mohammed and his biographers confirmed the city
intended by the Quran
is
The Quran text surely demonstrates that Mohammed had in mind Barnabas and
Paul, the two apostles who preached and taught in
The threat of stoning the apostles did not occur in
Then we read in the same
Surah 36, verse 29, that the magic cry which judged and destroyed the
inhabitants of
The city of
The Qur'an displays an
inadequate knowledge of historical chronology when it presents unsubstantiated
statements, confuses the personalities of the Bible, and adulterates history.
Mohammed took advantage of his local environment at
THE HOOPOE AND SOLOMON AND
THE QUEEN OF
A Comparison Between the Biblical Narration of the Visit of the
Queen of
We will
compare the Qur'anic position about the visit of the Queen of Saba to King
Solomon with the Biblical and historical facts about the same visit.
First
of all, I'd like to turn your attention to the trading relationship between
Saba, called
God
gave Solomon a great gift of wisdom. So
much so, that other rulers heard about his wisdom and came to him bearing
gifts. The Queen of Sheba was among them. In I Kings, chapter 10, we read about
the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon. The Bible says:
Now
when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the
Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. She came to
When did the
Queen of
The
book of I Kings specifies that King Solomon had completed most of his important
accomplishments before the visit of the Queen of Sheba. Among the things he did
was the construction of the
King
Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion Geber, which is near Elath on the
shore of the Red Sea, in the
According
to the Bible, all these accomplishments were made before the Queen of Sheba
visited
How the
Queen of
We
could ask ourselves how the Queen of Sheba heard of the wisdom of Solomon.
Perhaps Sabaean merchants were already traveling the land route through
northern
I
believe that Solomon's name was famous in
Many
years before Solomon's fleet was constructed, King Hiram, the Phoenician king
of
For he
was wiser than any other man....Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon's
wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world who had heard of his wisdom.
All the
marine traffic from
The
mythological Quranic narration regarding the visit of the queen of Sheba to
Solomon, copied from the II Targum of Esther
You
will find this difficult to believe, but the
Quran
claims that King Solomon never heard of the
This Quranic myth is copied with little
variation from the mythological Jewish book called the Second Targum of Esther.
The bird in the Targum is a wild rooster, while in the Quran it is the hoopoe. The Targum uses eagles as carriers to
the throne while the Quran uses the Jinn. Other than this,
the Quranic narration is identical to the
Targum.
The Second Targum of Esther was written
before Christ and was widespread among Arabian tribes who embraced Judaism. We
find this myth in Arabian poems written before Mohammed's time, and in the
poems of people claiming to be prophets in
This Quranic myth is copied from the II Targum of Esther, with little
variation. As I mentioned above, most of the details are identical, as example,
the Targum mentioned that the Queen when arriving at Solomons palace, thought the King was sitting
in water and she raised her dress. The
Quran
copied this particular incident from the narration of the Targum. I quote first
the words of the Targum:
Now
when King Solomon heard that she was coming to him, King Solomon arose and went
to sit down in a bathhouse. When the Queen saw that the King was sitting in a
bathhouse, she thought to herself, the king must be sitting in water. So she raised her dress to wade across.
Whereupon he noticed the hair on her legs, to which King Solomon responded by
saying: Your
beauty is the beauty of women, but your hair is the hair of men. Now hair is beautiful for a man but
shameful for a woman.
Mohammed
copied the same idea from the Targum. We read in Surah 27, called al-Naml,
verse 44:
she
was asked to enter the palace, but when she saw plenty of water she raised her
dress uncovering her legs.
NIMROD IN THE QURAN
According
to Genesis 10:8-11, Nimrod was the first builder of the old cities of
This false claim about Nimrod was made to
conform to a mistake in the Quran,
which made Nimrod reign at the time of Abraham. The Quran says Nimrod persecuted Abraham and
cast him into a fire that did not harm him. We read this in Surah al-Anbiya'
21:51-70 and Surah al-Safat 37:95.
Midrash
Rabbah, a mythological Jewish book, is the source of the Qur'anic narration
about Nimrod and Abraham
Many
Jewish books were widely spread among Arabian tribes who embraced Judaism. At the time of Mohammed, the myth of the Quran regarding Abraham and Nimrod was
taken from a Jewish book called Midrash Rabbah. The narration of the Quran corresponds perfectly to chapter 17
of this Jewish book. A Jewish writer found in the Bible that Nimrod built the
oldest Mesopotamian cities, but the writer incorrectly applied a story from the
book of Daniel to Abraham. The book of Daniel told of the three Jewish young
men who refused to worship a statue of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and
were cast into a fire that didnt
harm them. However, the writer of Midrash
Rabbah ignored the fact that 3000 years separated Abraham from Nimrod.
The Confusion of Mohammed Regarding the History of Alexander , Nimrod and Solomon
In his
Hadith, Mohammed claims that Nimrod reigned over the entire earth and that
Solomon, Nebuchadnezzar and Dhu al-Qarnayn ruled over the entire earth, as well.
Dhu al-Qarnayn means the one
with two horns, a
title for Alexander the Great, as shown by Aramaic literature. Mohammed stated
that two were believers: Solomon and Alexander the Great, and that two were
infidels: Nimrod and Nebuchadnezzar.[24]
This assertion is clearly incorrect because
not one of these men ruled the whole earth. Alexander the Great did occupy a
small part of Europe, in addition to his conquests in the Middle East and parts
of
Mohammeds Hadith is also clearly incorrect in
its claims about who were believers and who were infidels. Alexander the Great was known to be a pagan
king with a passion for the idols of his conquered cities. In spite of this,
Mohammed claimed Alexandar was a Muslim leader who made a holy war, or Jihad,
to spread Islam throughout the world. (I will refute in detail this claim of
the Qur'an in the next section.) Such myths of the Quran about Alexander the Great and Solomon
are derived from many Arabian resources, especially from poems recited by men
of the time, many of whom claimed to be prophets.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT IN THE QURAN
Alexander the
Great was known to be a zealot pagan and polytheistic worshipper of idols. But
Mohammed claimed Alexander was a servant of Allah who made Jihads, or holy
wars, to spread Islam in the ancient world.
In Addition to Mohammeds confusion with historical
chronology, he attributed magical judgments to nations and removed them from
history, even though these nations continued to exist throughout history until
close to his own time. Like the prophets of the Arabian Jinn religion, Mohammed
wrote important historical figures into the religion of Islam.
For example, Mohammed claimed Alexander the Great was a Muslim
leader who made Jihads to spread the religion of Allah throughout the world. At
the time of Mohammed the Quran called him Dhu al- Qarnayn, which means the one with two horns. This term is used in The
Romance of Alexander, an Aramaic book which spread among Nastoric
Christians before Islam. Old versions of The Romance of Alexander were found which carry the title of Dhu al-Qarnayn.
Alexander the Great was portrayed on the coins of the kingdom with
two horns to symbolize the conquests of the West and the East. Alexander was
known to be the most polytheistic pagan worshipper in history. He consulted the
priests of the Greek gods before any military campaign, and worshipped the
idols of each city he conquered. He claimed that he was a god, the son of the Greek
god, Zeus. When Alexander heard that Philotas, the commander of the Companion
Cavalry, had mocked his claim to be son of Zeus Ammon, Alexander was so angry
that he arrested Philotas, put him on trial and condemned him to death.
Alexander's claim to be deity was something mentioned by all the classical
writers. The historian Agatharchides said:
Alexander, who was invincible on the battlefield, was completely
helpless in his personal relationships. For he was ensnared by praise, and when
he called himself the son of Zeus he didnt think he was being mocked,
but thought he was being honored for his passion for the impossible and his
forgetfulness of nature.[25]
Aristobulus, an eyewitness working as an engineer for Alexander, gives
us the reason why Alexander was planning to conquer
when Alexander knew the
Arabians worshipped two main deities, he took it for granted that they would
worship him as a third deity if he conquered them and allowed them to keep
their ancestral independence.[26]
Yet, Mohammed still claimed that Alexander was a Muslim devoted to
Allah. Mohammed said Alexanders campaigns were Jihads for Allah in order to justify Mohammeds own
campaigns against innocent Arabian and Jewish tribes.
What the Quran says regarding Dhu
al Qarnayn.
The Quran tells about Dhu al Qarnayns trip to the extremities of the earth,
the places where the sun sets and rises from spots on the earth and the place
where Gog and Magog live. According the Quran, Dhu al Qarnayn built a
dam of iron and brass, in which he imprisoned them until human history
concludes.
In the Quran, Surah 18: 83-98, we read, They ask you concerning Dhu al
Qarnayn. Tell them I will recite some of his story. We established his power on
earth, and we gave him from every thing the means to accomplish. He followed
the path until he reached the place where the sun sets. There he found the sun
setting in a spring of fetid muddy water. Near it he found a people. We said. Oh,
Dhu al Qarnayn, either you torment them or you deal with them kindly. To which
he said, whoever did injustice, well torment, then well send him back to his
lord who will torment him more with an anguish unheard of before. But, whoever believed and was righteous shall
have a good reward and easy tasks.
Then Dhu al Qarnayn followed another path until he reached the place where the
sun rises. He found it ( the sun)
rising over a people to whom, because of the sun, we did not provide with covering protection.
We completely understood what was before him
Then he followed another path which took him to the two barriers ( two
mountains). There he found beneath them a people who barely understood a
sentence. They said, O, Dhu al Qarnayn, the Gog and Magog are corrupting the
earth. Shall we give you tribute money so you can erect a dam between us and
them?
He said, that which my lord has provided is better than the tribute.
Therefore, give me your strength, and I will erect a dam between you and them.
Bring me iron blocks. When he had filled up the space between the edges of the
two mountains, he said Blow on it. It became fire, then he said bring me
Qiter (molten brass,) that I may pour over it . Gog and Magog could not scale
it nor dig through it. He said This is a mercy from my lord. But, when the
promise of my lord ( the last day) will come to pass, he will make the dam into
dust. The promise of my lord is true.
The word which the Quran used for the metal Alexander poured on the iron is Qiter
قِطر, which means molten brass. Early expositors of the Quran
such as Ibn al Juzi ابن الجوزي, who quoted Muqatil مقاتل, confirmed this meaning. They said that
Qiter is a molten yellow brass[27]. Yachut al Hamayi, in
his famous work called Maajam al Buldan, speaks also of molten yellow brass as
the element in which Dhu al Qarnayn varnished the dam[28]. The same meaning is given by all the important
Arabic dictionaries, such as al-Munjid[29] . Some translators
of the Quran try to avoid molten brass as the meaning of Qiter, and render it
as lead. The reason for this deception is that they were well aware that
molten brass was not available to people outside the
Sources of the Qur'an narration credited to Dhu al Qarnayn
Those words which I translated directly from the Arabic in the Quran, were
copied directly from a book which dates back many centuries before the Quran
was written. The Greek text of this book was written in the third century A.D.
by a person who claimed to be Callisthenes, the companion and historian of
Alexander the Great. Callisthenes accompanied Alexander in his campaigns.
Because it became known that Callisthenes was not the author of the book, it
became known as written by Pseudo-Callisthenes.
In later times many writings appeared which relied on the myths of this book.
They spread to many countries before the rise of Islam. All these writings ,
including the book of pseudo-Callisthenes, became sources for the Qurans myth
about the voyage of Dhu al Qarnayn. Among these writings was a Syriac letter
which became known as A Christian Legend Concerning Alexander. Another Syrian
writing is The Metrical Homily on Alexander, translated in the fifth
century by Jacob Serugh, who was known by Arabs as Yacob al Saruji.
Lets look at the roots of the myths which influenced the author of the book of
Pseudo-Callisthenes, and the Syriac authors who wrote the myths of Alexander.
The most important sources these authors had were the Epic of Gilgamesh and
Persian Zoroastrian mythology.
The book of Pseudo-Callisthenes
An unknown Egyptian wrote a book and attributed it to Callisthenes, the
companion of Alexander the Great. The writer claimed Alexander the Great was
born as a result of a relationship between Nectanebus, an Egyptian King and
Olympias, the wife of Philip, the King of Macedonia. According to the
story narrated by this Egyptian writer, Nectanebus fled from
Nectanebus also told her that the god Amon might appear to her in different
forms, one of which was a large serpent with two horns. Another was the form of
Nectanebus himself. Through sorcery, Nectanebus changed his appearance into the
one of a serpent, and came to Olympias and slept with her. As a result
she became pregnant.
Originally the author of the book painted Alexander as an Egyptian. So he
said Alexander, after becoming a king of
Although the writer claimed Alexander was the son of an Egyptian king, he also
said he was the son of Amon, the god of
What concerns us most in this mythological book is how Alexander traveled to
the extremities of the earth, including the location where the sun rises and
sets and where he searches for the spring of life which guarantees immortality.
This mythological journey is the foundation and the source of Dhu al Qarnayns
( the one of two horns) journey described in the Quran, Surah 18, called al
Kahf.
The Epic of Gilgamesh as a source for the Pseudo-Callisthenes
The Egyptian author was influenced by Zoroastrian sources. We also find
striking similarities between his narration in Mesopotamian mythology and
Pseudo-Callisthenes. The Egyptian author recalls Gilgamesh visiting the
location where the sun rises, in order to consult the sun regarding his search
for immortality.
Gilgamesh was the king of the Sumerian city of
Similarities between both narrations are too numerous to be accidental.
We can easily see many similarities between the Mesopotamian journey about
Gilgamesh, and the journey of Alexander, or Dhu al Qarnayn. In the first
tablet, Gilgamesh possesses great knowledge in every thing, and he travels across land and sea. Likewise, Alexander
is given wisdom as he travelers to the extremities of the earth. This is clear
in the Pseudo-Callisthenes account as well as in the Quran which says in verse
84 of Surah 18 We established his power on earth, and we gave him every means
to accomplish it.
In the first tablet, we see Gilgamesh formed from the meat of the gods.
Alexander is portrayed by Pseudo-Callisthenes as the son of the Amon, god of
In the third tablet, we find that Gilgamesh revealing the plans for his journey
to the elders of the city, who in return, try to discourage him from making
this journey. However he insisted. Similarity in the journey of Alexander, he
declares his plans to the nobles of the city of
In the fifth tablet, Gilgamesh comes with his friend to the
Striking similarities of the heros visit to where the sun rises in both
Epic of Gilgamesh and and in the Pseudo-Callisthenes account
In the ninth tablet, Gilgamesh decides to visit Uta-Napishtim, the one who
obtained immortality and was deified. Gilgamesh wanted to consult Uta-Napishtim
on how to obtain immortality for himself. Gilgamesh goes to the East where he
is attacked by animals and humans with strange, anomalous or abnormal shapes,
but he overcomes them. Then he reaches
In the Gilgamesh epic, we also notice that
The
In the tenth tablet, Gilgamesh reaches to the fortress of goddess Siduri, who
warns him of a devastating and troublesome sea before him. She tells him, Of
the ones who reached here since ancient times tried to cross this sea. Only the
hero Shamsh( the sun) actually did cross this sea. Who else succeeded? We then
conclude, that the Sumerian idea included a troublesome sea situated in the
extremity of the earth, and only the sun when it was setting crossed this sea.
Then goddess Siduri said to Gilgamesh, The passage is hard, and the way is
difficult,
and the waters of death which bar its front are deep. If, then,
Gilgamish, thou art able to cross the sea, when you
arrive at the waters of death, what will you do?
This difficult sea and the waters of death described in the Epic of Gilgamesh,
has its counterpart in Pseudo-Callisthenes. Here its a sea or ocean which
surrounds the earth which no one can cross. The story goes that some of
Alexanders soldiers attempted to swim in the sea, but beast-like humans came
out of the water and devoured them[35]. This sea is described in many versions of
Pseudo-Callisthenes book as a fetid sea full of pus making its crossing
impossible[36] . It is near this fetid sea that the sun sets and enters
into heaven through a gate placed there[37].
It is clear that those ideas
about the troublesome sea which the sun crosses in the Sumerian mythology is
the root or foundation for the foetid sea in the pseudo-Callisthenes book, where
the sun passes over in order to sets in a gate through which it enters heaven.)
The fetid sea idea is used in the Quran where its
called the Spring of Hammaah. In the Quran, Dhu al Qarnayn finds the sun setting in this Spring of Hammaah . Hammaah
is an Arabic word which means fetid
or fetid mud. Well see later, how
Mohammed used Tubbaas idea regarding the sunset.Tubba was a Yemeni military
leader who occupied
Mohammed knew the myths of Pseudo-Callisthenes book and the Syriac writings
which were based on it.
About the men with humans with anomalous forms
whom, according to both Epic of Gilgamesh and pseudo-Callisthenes, Gilgamesh
and Alexander met in the extremities of the earth. We find Pseudo-Callisthenes mentioning that
Alexander was told about people, called Nagashawiyans, who have faces
like dogs. They live beyond the great mountain where Alexander erected the dam
to imprison Gog and Magog[38].
The Armenian of Pseudo-Callisthenes version speaks of dog-men who bark like
dogs[39].
The Syriac writing A Christian Legend Concerning Alexander, which is
based on Pseudo-Callisthenes book, dates to the 4th or 5th century A.D.
It gives some details about the dog-men. Alexander asked the local people to
described the atrocities and dangers concerning Gog and Magog. Then Alexander
said to them, Who are the nations that
live beyond these? Those of
Beth-Amardath and the Dog-men; and beyond the Dog-men is the nation of the
Menine; and beyond the nation of the Menine there are no human beings, but only terrible mountains and hills and
valleys and plains and horrible caves, in which are serpents and adders and
vipers, so that men cannot go thither without being immediately devoured by the
serpents, for the lands are waste, and there is nothing there save desolation.
Within all these mountains the Paradise of God appears afar off.[40]
This quotation from the Syriac legend shows the belief of the Syriac author
that beyond the people of Gog and Magog are dog-men, men with dogs heads.
In additional to the people called Menine, dog-men are the last human creatures
we see before seeing the paradise of God.
Mohammed in his Hadith, which was reported by al Taberi, mentions the dog- men.
He places them where the Pseudo-Callisthenes book and the Syriac writings, such
as A Christian Legend concerning Alexander place them. All these
sources locate them in one of the extremities of the earth beyond Gog and
Magog.
Mohammed said to some people of the booka term in which Christians and Jews
were called -,You came to ask me about Dhu al Qarnayn. He was a young man from
the Roman empire who built the city of
Ibn Kathir reports a Hadith of Mohammed in which he agrees that an angel
carried Alexander to the barrier of the two mountains. Beyond that he saw men
with faces of dogs[42].
The Hadiths of Mohammed show that he had a good knowledge about the myths of
Pseudo-Callisthenes book and the Syriac writings which depended on it.
This book was, second only to the Bible, as the most read literature in
the first centuries after Christ. Many people of that time, believed that world
geography should be in accordance with the geography presented by this book.
Analyzing Mohammeds Hadith, we notice that he described a sea surrounding the
whole world. This sea is the one mentioned in the book of Pseudo-Callisthenes
as a fetid sea which no one could cross.
Mohammed also mentioned al sed, which means the barrier. He explained it as
two mountains so smooth that no one could climb them. He mentioned in the
Quran about this barrier or two mountains that it have a breach in between,
which Dhu al Qarnayn filled with iron and brass, and imprisoned Gog and Magog. ) This same mountain
surrounding the world, is mentioned also in Pseudo-Callisthenes and the Syriac
writings which were based on it. The
savage people, whether were the Huns or Gog Magog,
were imprisoned by Alexander when he erected gates that close the breach.
Other important element in the Hadith of Mohammed is that beyond the Gog
and Magog there is this nation of men dogs , whom Mohammed placed in the same
location where Pseudo Callisthenes placed them.
What
we have been discussing cant help but reveal Mohammeds true acquaintance with
the myths of Pseudo-Callisthenes. It reveals his belief, like many people of
his generation, that the book of Pseudo-Callisthenes described the extremities
of the earth as the true geography which men would find if they could live so
long and travel so far. Mohammed believed that if you could be carried by an
angel or winged camel, to explore the extremities of the earth, you would find
the truth of Pseudo-Callisthenes as Mohammed claimed to find when the angel
Gabriel carried him on a winged camel to the temple of Jerusalem, then to the
extremities of the earth, where he confirmed the discoveries of Dhu al Qarnayn
as they were described in the Quran and Pseudo-Callisthenes.
Many things confirm the acquaintance Mohammed had with the myths of Pseudo-Callisthenes
book, such as his description of the people of Gog and Magog.
Other
point which reveals the aquintance of Mohammed with the myths of Pseudo
Callisthenes book and the Syriac writings which later were based on this book,
is the description which we find in both the Quran and the Pseudo Callisthenes
and Syriac writings about the people living on the sunrise. That they are
without protection from the rays fo the sun. Pseudo Callisthenes and Syriac
writings as well Mohammed in his Hadith, said that people who live around where
the sun rises flee to the water until the sun disappear.
About the narration of the Pseudo Callisthenes
book that Alexander entered the land of darkness: We find the thoughts of Arabic writers about the same
subject such as al Qurtubi[43], Al-Alusi[44] and Wahab bin Munabah, the Yemenite[45]. All this indicates how much the
Arabian were acquainted with the myths of Pseudo Callisthenes, therefore, we should not be surprised when we see the
same stories in the religious literature surrounding the Quran and the Qur'an
itself.
THE
LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SLEEPERS OF
Mohammed incorporated the Syriac legend of the Seven
Sleepers of Ephesus into the Quran. The legend is about seven Christians who slept in a cave for
150-200 years. This was in the year 250 A.D. at the time of Decius,
the Roman emperor who persecuted Christians. Decius, according to the
legend, came to
At the time of the Christian emperor either Theodosius the Great
who lived between 379 -395 A.D., or Theodosius the Younger, who lived between
408- 450 A.D. there was a controversy about the resurrection which many
heretics denied. When a landowner opened the cave to use it as cattle stall,
the sleepers awakened from their sleep and thought they had slept only one
night. So the seven sent one of their number to buy food. The one sent by them
went with the coins of Decius which they had kept when imprisoned in the cave.
He was amazed to see the Cross over the churches and the name of Christ
openly on the lips of everyone. The people were astonished to see the young man
with the coins of Decius. They assumed he had found a treasure in the cave. The
man then revealed the story of their sleep. Emperor Theodosius went to the cave
to see the seven men, and used this miracle to confirm that bodies indeed can
be resurrected. When the seven men eventually died, the king wanted to make
tombs of gold for them, but the men appeared to the king in a dream asking him
to bury them in a normal cave.
The story had pagan origins before the Christian era. The Greek
philosopher, Aristotle, tells a similar story about sleepers at the city of
The legend was Christianized by the Syriacs, probably translated
by the Syriacs from the pagan Greeks because the Syriacs were known to have
translated the works of Greek philosophers such as Aristotle. The tale was
known among Syriac resources before it was translated into other languages,
proving that they had translated it from pagan Greek resources. The tale also
appeared in the Homily of Jacob of Saruq, or Sarugh. He was
a Monophysite priest, Syrian poet and writer who lived in the city of
The Legend
Grows
The story remained within a limited circle of oriental Syriacs
until it was translated into Latin in the late 6th century by
Gregory of Tours, and it gained legendary status. The legend is found in the
95th chapter of his book, De Gloria Martyrum, which means the
Glory of the Martyrs. Gregory says that he heard the legend from a
certain Syrian or Syriac. Gregory recorded the story as legend. The story is a legend
because it was originated in pagan circles before the Christian era. It was
translated from the Greek pagan literature into Syriac, and spread among
limited number of Syriacs in north
Before Gregory translated it into Latin and popularized it, the
legend was never mentioned in Ephesian literature, even though
Nather, a Relative of Mohammed, Tests Mohammed on
Where he Got his Legends
Mohammed copied the legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, as
though it were historical fact. Mohammed included the legend in Surah 18,
called al-Kahf or the chapter of the cave. Some leaders of
Quraish, the tribe from which Mohammed came, got together. Among them was
Nather Bin al-Hareth. As a result of suggestions from some of the Jews, Nather
Bin al-Hareth sought to expose the ignorance of Mohammed concerning history.
They were concerned about his trend to incorporate all the myths he heard into
Suras in his Quran. This incident was reported by Ibn Hisham.[49]
Nather Bin Hareth was known for exposing the origin of Mohammeds
Persian myths. Every time Mohammed recited verses from the Quran
which were of Persian origin, Nather would stand and recite the same
Zoroastrian myths with more accuracy. We read about this in the book of
Ibn Hisham. He writes:
When Mohammed used to sit and recite the Quran to
the tribe of Quraish, Al-Nather would speak after him and narrate the
stories and myths of Rustam, Isfendyar and the Persian kings. Then, al-Nather
would say, Mohammed's narration is not better than mine. His narration is
just ancient myths. He wrote it as I wrote it.[1]{50}
Nather was able to say this because he studied Persian history and
mythology in Hira, a city governed by the Lakhmids, an Arabian tribe who
were vassals to the Persians.[50]
Included in the questions Nather asked Mohammed was a question
about the legend of
Our Muslim friends must learn to evaluate Mohammed, not on
sentimental religious claims which imprison their minds and mislead their
intellects, but on historical facts. The test put to him by Nather and his
companions revealed Mohammed to be one who accumulated myths from primitive
sources to appear as though he had all knowledge because, according to his
claim, he was sent by Allah.
The Quran lacks spiritual understanding. When he failed the test,
Mohammed proved that he was unable to respond to the simplest spiritual
questions.
The third question posed to Mohammed was, What is the spirit?, a
simple question every Jewish or Christian man should answer immediately by
quoting the Bible. God created man with a body, soul and spirit. The spirit is
the human entity which communicates with God and enables man to worship God.
The Jews composed the third question, when they noticed that the
verses from the Quran quoted by Mohammed lacked spirituality, and focused on earthly
things. For example, Mohammed claimed an unusual sexual relationship with
all women, including the wives of his followers. The Quran
claims he had the prerogative to marry anyone, and each muslem female was to
offer herself to him. This is the 50th verse in Surah 33, called al-Ahzab. It
reads:
Oh prophet, we made it lawful to you to take the wives for which
you have paid their dowry. What your hand possesses from the prisoners of war
that Allah gave you, and the daughters of your uncles and the daughters of your
aunts, and the daughters of your maternal uncles and aunts, those who migrated
with you, and any believing woman that gives herself to the prophet, if he
wants to wed her, are yours. These privileges are only for you and not for the
believers at large, we know what we have appointed for them as to their wives
and the females whom they captured in the wars. We established this so no
embarrassment would come you.
The Arabic word used for wed in this verse is Nakaha,
derived from Nikah. Aisheh, the youngest wife of Mohammed, explained that among the
applications of Nikah was that a woman must offer herself for a limited period
of time, perhaps several months, to a man for sexual enjoyment.[51] We can only
assume from this verse that Mohammed had special sexual prerogatives. As a
result, many women left their husbands to offer themselves to Mohammed.
A considerable part of the Quran revolves around Mohammeds
campaigns and those of his followers who must respond to Mohammeds call
for Jihad. The distribution of the spoils allowed for him to have a fifth of
everything. The Jews, seeing the lack of spirituality in Mohammeds
sayings, wanted to reveal his inability to answer when asked the simple
question, What is the spirit? Mohammed did not answer
questions about the spirit immediately, but he promised to answer them the
following day. Mohammed did not show up for two weeks. Evidently he went to
look for help. He returned, claiming Allah inspired him. Surah 17, called
Isra', verse 85 says, When they ask you about the spirit, tell them, the
spirit is the affair of Allah. Mohammed did not enter into discussion. He was completely
ignorant about the argument, showing he lacked a spiritual education and was
unable to express an opinion.
Concerning the question of Alexander the Great, Mohammed returned
with mythological ideas expressing thoughts embraced by some superstitious
Arabians of his time. Alexander became a legendary person, visiting the ends of
the earth confirming Yemeni myths that the sun sets in a spring of mud. They
expressed the idea espoused by some Persians who identified Alexander with their
mythological hero, Fredun, who imprisoned Azi Dahak, another mythological
character, and his diabolical followers until the last days. Azi Dahak,
according to Zoroastrians, was descended from Ahriman, who was the devil
in their sacred books.
Mohammed's
Misinformed Understanding of the Legend of the Seven Sleepers of
When questioned concerning the seven young people who slept for
centuries, Mohammed naturally turned to his Christian-Byzantine friends, among whom
was Jaber. We read in Ibn Hisham, the book that contains the most significant
narration on the life of Mohammed:
The prophet of Allah very often sat with a Christian named Jaber.
Jaber was a slave to the children of al-Khathrami. The people of
This accusation by the Meccians to Mohammed was not without
foundation. Why would Mohammed sit with a poor slave almost every day?
Another thing to consider is that Mohammed despised slaves. He said that a
slave can't testify in a court unless he is beaten.[52]
If one of his followers wanted to free a slave,
Mohammed objected, insisting that his follower sell the slave instead of
freeing him.[53] But here is a Christian slave who never became Muslim, yet
Mohammed took the time to go to him every day. Mohammed came to Jaber. It was
not Jaber who came to Mohammed. This reveals Jabers
importance as a source of information for Mohammed on the Bible, Christian
doctrine, and the Christianized myths of the Byzantine period. Arabic sources
speak of Jaber as a Roman. The term was used in Arabia for the citizen of the
Another contact for Mohammed was Balaam, also
called Yaish, or Addass.[1]{56} Balaam was a Byzantine Christian who was a
slave to Huitab Bin Abed al-Uzei. The people of
The Qurans
version of the Legend of the Seven Sleepers shows Mohammed failed to understand the legend and its
purpose.
In the Quran, Surah 18, al-Kahf or the Cave, we find Mohammeds
answer about the sleepers. He presented the legend as historical fact, yet his
variations reflected his lack of understanding and the unreliability of his
legendry sources. In verse 17, Mohammed said:
You would have seen the sun when it rose to the right from the
cave, but when it set, it turned away from them toward the left while they were
in the open space of the cave.
This verse says the sun entered the cave, but avoided them. It may
be a variation of the legend, indicating that no one could have seen the
sleepers during the centuries they slept because the sun had avoided them. This
contradicts the original legend which said that the cave was sealed with
stones, in a way that neither the sun could penetrate the cave nor could any
one see the sleepers.
In verse 18 we read another development in the legend which only a
primitive environment like
Their dog stretched his two forelegs on the threshold of the cave.
If you had visited them (The Sleepers) and looked, you would have fled from
them, filled with terror.
The Quran protected the sleepers during those hundreds of years through
the dog. According to Mohammeds account, anyone who came toward the cave was filled with terror
and fled, because a fierce dog guarded the entrance.
Mohammed
picked up on the original legend, which said that after these young people
arose from their sleep, they sent one of them with money to buy food for them,
thinking that they had slept only one day. The Quran tells us the people knew about the
case of the seven sleepers, but they prevailed against them, and decided to
construct a mosque over them to prevent them from coming out from the cave.
According to the legend, Mohammed thought the sleepers arose when the
inhabitants of the city and the authorities were angry at the sleepers, to the
point they prevailed over them and constructed the place of worship over them
to assure that they would be imprisoned in the cave. This shows us that
Mohammed failed to understand the Christian purpose of the legend, which was to
show how these seven sleepers were protected when the
When
the
Mohammed knew
his sources about the legend were inferior to the knowledge of those who
presented the test to him, so he advanced the argument that Allah prohibited
him from discussing the legend.
Mohammed
could not come up with a definite number of sleepers in the Ephesian legend.
There are two versions of the original legend. One presents seven sleepers and
the other, eight. But, among Mohammeds various friends, it seems there were many thoughts about
the number of sleepers, which discouraged Mohammed from presenting a specific
number for the fear he would be ridiculed by those who tested him. In this
case, Mohammed withdrew his claim to present information as coming from Allah,
as he always did in the past. Instead, he said Allah ordered him not to discuss
the number. In verse 22, he says:
They
will say there were three sleepers, the dog being the fourth. They say there
were five, the dog being the sixth. Guessing at the unknown, they say there
were seven, and their dog is eight. You should say, My lord knows best their number. Those who know their number are few.
Therefore, do not enter into controversies concerning them, except on a matter
that is clear, nor consult any one regarding the sleepers.
We ask
ourselves: if only a few people, according to the verse, knew the exact number,
why was not Mohammed one of them? If he is in contact with God who knows
everything, why was not Mohammed among those few who knew the number? We can
only conclude that Mohammed was afraid to come with a definite number because
he knew the ones who presented the test were more knowledgeable than he was
about the legend, and he discovered his sources could not provide a definite
number. Thus, he claimed Allah prohibited him from discussing the case.
Mohammed made
the sleepers wake up more than 300 years after the authors who Christianized
the myth and spread it had died.
Also in
verse 25 of the same Surah (18) we read, They stayed in their cave 300 years.
These years increased by nine.
By this reasoning, the sleepers awoke around the year 559 A.D., when the
earlier Syriac translators of the legend from the Greek language were all dead.
Even Jacob of Sarugh, who included this legend in his writings, was dead. He
died in the year 521 A.D.
Mohammed
felt free to establish dates, thinking that no one had the right to refute him.
He included myths and legends in the Quran which were spread in his generation,
without considering the dates when they were actually spread. Then, he defended
the years of sleep he established for them by saying in verse 26, Say, Allah knows best how long they stayed.
Allah has the secrets of heavens and earth. By this he claimed 309 years as the
period they slept as indisputable, because Allah had inspired it. But how did
the claim of Mohammed fit into reality? First, the whole tale is well known as
legend, or myth. Second, the Christianized legend was well known in Syriac
literature for more than a century before the date established by Mohammed.
Mohammed with his enormous historical mistakes can't be a reliable source
for ancient history. Neither can we trust the Islamic writers who came after
Mohammed and invented stories without any support of written documentation.
The
summary which I have presented concerning the historical mistakes of the Quran confirms Mohammeds lack of education regarding
official history. Muslims can't depend on his assertions to establish
truth. Since what Mohammed said about historical figures and nations is
incorrect, it cannot be backed up by the official documented
history. Because of its primitive mythological character, how can
Mohammed expect us to believe that
We
know that no source in history confirms what Mohammed claimed about
[1][1] Haran Gawaita, Citta del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica, page 3
[2][2] Al-Bukhari, (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyeh, Beirut-Libenon), 1:89
[3][3] Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamel
Fi al-Tarikh, 2: page 86; Tarikh al-Tabari 1, page 126 ;
Al-Asbahani, Al Aghani 17, pages 15-17
[4][4] Halabieh, (Dar
al-Maarifah, Beirut-Lebanon), 1, page 456
[5][5] Halabieh 1, page
477
[6][6] Halabieh 1, page 508
[7][7] Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamel
Fi al-Tarikh, 2, page 86
[8][8] 1 Enoch 7:2
[9][9] John Reeves, Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony,
Hebrew Union College Press,
[10][10] al-Ya'akubi 1, page 226
[11][11] Ibn Hisham, I, page dal
[12][12] Ibn Hisham, I, page 8
[13][13] Ibn Khaldun, Kay's edition, quoted by Wilfred Schoff in his comments on The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Munshiram Manoharial Publishers Pvt Ltd, 1995, page 142
[14][14] al-Feiruzabadi, Al-Khamus al-Muheet, (Cairo, year 1913 ), 3, page 129
[15][15] Inscriptions of Sargon, (Ta-mu-di, Lie, The Inscriptions of Sargon II, King of Assyria, 20:120; Lyon 4:20; Iraq 16 { 1954 }, 199: 18); quoted by The Ancient Arabs, I. Ephal, E.J.Brill, Leiden, 1982, page 230
[16][16] F.V.Winnett and W.L.Reed, Ancient Records from North Arabia, University of Toronto Press, 1970, page 130
[17][17] F.V.Winnett and W.L.Reed, Ancient Records from North Arabia, University of Toronto Press, 1970, page 130
[18][18] Al-Khurtubi, Al Jama' al-Ahkam al-Quran, 15, page 14; Abu Hayyan Al-Andalusi, Tafsir al-Baher al-Muhit, 7, page 327
[19][19] Tabari Abi Jaafar Bin Jarir, Tarikh al-Tabari, Dar al-Kutub al- Ilmiyeh, ( Beirut-Lebanon, 1991), first Volume, pages 379 and 380
[20][20] Diwan Umayya Bin Abi al-Salet, page 26; quoted by Jawad Ali, al-Mufassel Fi Tarikh al-Arab Khabel al-Islam, Dar al-Ilem Lialmalain, (Beirut, 1978), Volume vi, page 490
[21][21] Tarikh al-Tabari, Abi Jaafar Bin Jarir al-Tabari, Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyeh, (Beirut-Lebanon, 1991), I, pages 426- 429
[22][22] Tarikh al-Tabari, I, pages 426-428; al-Ya'akubi I, 226
[23][23]Tarikh al-Tabari, I, page 128
[24][24]Tarikh al-Tabari, I, 142 and 143
[25][25] Agatharchides of Cnidus, on the Erythraean Sea, book I, 17, translated and edited by Stanley Burstein, The Hakluyt Society London, 1989, page 52
[26][26] The Geography of Strabo, Book XVI .I. 11
The Geography of Strabo, Volume VII, Harvard University Press, 1966, page 211
[27] ابن الجوزي
، زاد المسير
في علم
التفسير، في تفسير
سورة الكهف ،
صفحة 55
[28] معجم البلدان، ياقوت الحموي ، الجزء الخامس ، صفحة 937 و 938
[29]
al-Munjid, page 638
[30] The Armenian version of Pseudo-Callisthenes , 247-249; Albert M.
Wolohojian, The Romance of Alexander the Great by Pseudo-Callisthenes, Columbia
University Press,
[31]
Ernest A. Wallis Budge, The Alexander Book in
[32] A discourse composed by Jacob Sarugh, 130-160; Ernest A. Wallis Budge, The history of Alexander the Great, being the Syriac version of the Pseudo Callisthenes, Gorgias Press- 2003, page 170-172
[33]
Dinkard-Book VIII, Chapter XXXI, 30, Pahlavi
Texts, Part IV, Translated by E.W. West, The Sacred books of the East, Volume
37 ,Published by Motilal Banarsidass,
[34]
Syriac version of the Pseudo Callisthenes, book
III, VII; Ernest A. Wallis Budge, The history of Alexander the Great, being the
Syriac version of the Pseudo Callisthenes, Gorgias Press- 2003, pages 104 and 105; The Armenian version of Pseudo-Callisthenes, 224;
Albert M. Wolohojian, The Romance of Alexander the Great by
Pseudo-Callisthenes, Columbia University Press,
[35]
Syriac version of the Pseudo Callisthenes, book
III, VII; Ernest A. Wallis Budge, The history of Alexander the Great, being the
Syriac version of the Pseudo Callisthenes, Gorgias Press- 2003, page 100
[36]
Ernest A. Wallis Budge, The history of Alexander
the Great, being the Syriac version of the Pseudo Callisthenes, Gorgias
Press- 2003, page civ
[37]
ِA Christian Legend concering Alexander, Ernest A.
Wallis Budge, The history of Alexander the Great, being the Syriac version of
the Pseudo Callisthenes, Gorgias Press-
2003, page
148
[38]
Ernest A. Wallis Budge, The history of Alexander
the Great, being the Syriac version of the Pseudo Callisthenes, Gorgias
Press- 2003, page cv
[39]
Albert M. Wolohojian, The Romance of Alexander
the Great by Pseudo-Callisthenes, Columbia University Press,
[40]
A
Christian legend concerning Alexander , translated by Ernest A. Wallis
Budge, The history of Alexander the Great, being the Syriac version of the
Pseudo Callisthenes, Gorgias Press-
2003, page
152
[41] جامع البيان عن تأويل آي القرآن المعروف بتفسير الطبري ، تأليف أبي جعفر محمد بن جرير الطبري، 16 صفحة 10
[42] تفسير ابن
كثير ، للإمام
الحافظ عماد الدين
، أبو الفداء
اسماعيل بن
كثير القرشى الدمشقي،
الجزء الثالث
، صفحة 742
[43] الجامع
لأحكام
القرآن،
المشهور بـ
"تفسير القرطبي"،
تأليف أبو
عبدالله محمد
بن أحمد الأنصاري
القرطبي الجزء
11 صفحة 22
[44] روح
المعاني في
تفسير القرآن
العظيم والسبع
المثاني ،
المعروف
بتفسير
الألوسي ،
الألوسي
- شهاب الدين
محمود
البغدادي،
الجزء السادس
، صفحة 15
[45] الجامع
لأحكام
القرآن،
المشهور بـ "تفسير
القرطبي"،
تأليف أبو
عبدالله محمد
بن أحمد
الأنصاري
القرطبي
الجزء 11 صفحة 23 و
24
[47] Koch, Die Siebenschlafereigende,
ihr Ursprung u. ihre Verbreitung (Leipzig, 1883), pp. 24-40, Quoted by the Adrian Fortescue, The
Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume V
[48] WRIGHT, A Short History of Syriac Literature (
[49] Ibn Hisham, I, page 240
[50] Ibn Hisham, I, pages 239 and 282
[51] Sahih
al-Bukhari, 6, page 132; Halabieh 1, page 69
[52][ Ibn Hisham 2,
page 26
[52] Sahih
al-Bukhari, 3, page 150
[53] Sahih
al-Bukhari, 3, page 86; 3, page 135
[54] al-Allusi, Ruh' al-Maani, 14: 233; Tafsir al-Tabari 14:119
Copyright γ 2004 by Dr. Rafat Amari. All rights reserved.