History

(taken from Calling Christians)

"Your Prophet only began to exist in the 8th century CE, there are no earlier mentions of him."

Except by...Stephen of Alexandria where he writes that an Arab merchant around the year 630 CE said to him:

"In the desert of Ethrib there had appeared a certain man from the so-called tribe of Quraysh of the genealogy of Ishamel whose name was Muhammad and who said he was a Prophet. He appeared in the month of Pharmuti, which is called April by the Romans, of the 932nd year from the beginning of Philip. He has brought a new expression and a strange teaching, promising to those who accept him victories in wars, domination over enemies and delights in paradise."

Source: De Stephano Alexandrino, Horoscope (21 edition, Hermann Usener, Bonn: 1880).

By Ethrib he means Yathrib (or what was later called Madina), the 932nd year of Philip corresponds to the year 620 CE. This Arab merchant does not know about Muslim beliefs, but knows enough details that correspond to the core historical beliefs of Muslims:

1. That Muhammad peace be upon him was a Prophet.
2. That he migrated to Madinah.
3. That there were wars since the migration.

These 3 core historical details demonstrate the truth of the early Seerah reports (or rather battle traditions known as the Maghazi literature) and the later Seerah reports. Mythicists who insist he did not exist or was a later creation in the 8th century (like Jay Smith), do not know the basics of historical research. He is also mentioned in various ways by:

- The Doctrina Jacobi (circa 634 CE)
- Bishop Sebeos (circa 660's CE)
- A Chronicler of Khuzistan (an anonymous Nestorian Christian, circa 660's CE)

What is amazing is that those who doubt Makkah existed (again, like Smith), this Christian Nestorian in the Chronicle of Khuzistan writes:

"Regarding the dome of Abraham, we have been unable to discover what it is...Since he lived in tents, he built that place for the worship of God and for offering sacrifices...Indeed it was no new thing for the Arabs to worship there, but goes back to antiquity, to their early days, in that they show honor to the father of the head of their people."

Source: Robert Hoyland's, Seeing Islam, page 187 ( to which the source quote is from the Chronicle of Khuzistan, translated by Ignazio Guidi from the source Chronicon Anonymum and published in Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium's edition 1-2 ,from Paris 1903).