Early scholars inferred authorship of texts from assumed Muslim moral incapacity

Evidence

77. San Pedro’s criticism was unsound in that it depended on the assumption that Muhammad was not only the author of the Qur’an but also of the traditions and of the kitab al-mi‘raj; a single author would indeed be inconsistent. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2225 (#expands, via linked claim)

Of course, such investigations by Eichhorn, Wolf and others had no direct relevance to the study of the Qur’an and the early history of Islam, but in the long run it was inevitable that scholars who had cut their teeth on source-critical techniques, as applied to the Bible or Greek and Latin texts, should think of applying those same techniques to early Arabic materials. — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 275 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Philological analysis of key texts established Muslims as static subspecies; Criticizing purported inconsistencies in the Qur’an depends on assumptions about authorship — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2225; Polemical borrowing across Latin texts propagated deliberate misrepresentation of Islam (+1 more)

Related

• Criticizing purported inconsistencies in the Qur’an depends on assumptions about authorship (similarity 0.89)
• Biblical source-criticism techniques inevitably transferred to studying early Islam (similarity 0.87)
• Bible primacy made Latin writers structurally unable to credit the Qur’an (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval polemicists conflated Qur’an and hadith authorship by Muhammad (similarity 0.82)
• Arabic texts were prized for polemic authenticity yet intellectually ignored by Latin Christians (similarity 0.82)
• Polemical borrowing across Latin texts propagated deliberate misrepresentation of Islam (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval annotators traced specific Qur’anic verses to Arian and Nestorian heretical origins (similarity 0.80)
• Even well-informed medieval authors chose implausible stories when framing Muslims (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval Europeans could not distinguish the Qur’an from other Islamic books. (similarity 0.79)
• Claims that the Quran borrowed from Scripture were linguistically unserious (similarity 0.79)
• Scholars perpetuated apocryphal Islamic legends despite knowing they lacked sources (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval apologists may have blurred Qur’anic authority to treat it as human-made (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval Christian writers assumed Muslim doctrine derived from misinterpreted Scripture (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval Christian critics of Islam lacked Arabic competence and historical perspective (similarity 0.79)
• Misunderstanding Islamic theology came from conflating God as creator and as author of acts (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Philological analysis of key texts established Muslims as static subspecies #expands (0.85)
• Criticizing purported inconsistencies in the Qur’an depends on assumptions about authorship #expands (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2225
• Biblical source-criticism techniques inevitably transferred to studying early Islam #expands (0.78) — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 275
• Polemical borrowing across Latin texts propagated deliberate misrepresentation of Islam #complicates (0.75)