- For the most shocking example, see Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad,
p.464. The original biography was written shortly after Mohammed’s
death, by a Muslim named Ibn Ishaq. It is published by one of the most
prestigious publishers in the world, publishers whose reputation for
scholarship would mean they wouldn’t go near a book that was
“islamophobic”. Moreover, the actual book from Oxford University Press
on sale in the UK is not printed in Oxford, but is printed in Pakistan, a
country where they have the death penalty for blasphemy against Islam.
We can take it from these facts, that either before 1955 or after that date
no Muslims have found blasphemous the details of the character and
behaviour of Mohammed found in this most authoritative Muslim
biography of Mohammed. Guillaume was a Professor at the University of
London, who received awards across the Islamic world for his work. To
get an understanding of the importance of Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Hisham and
Tabari (whose work Guillaume weaved together into one narrative) see
Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam, London, 1953, pp.547-548. Even the
enemies of Christianity or Buddhism do not write biographies saying that
the founders of these religions were killers. Yet here we have the most
authoritative Muslim biography of Mohammed recording that he executed
up to 900 men and boys, with the mothers and sisters being sold by
Mohammed as slaves. ↵
dana p.
(Dana P.)
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