Soviet historiography explained Islam as bourgeois class ideology

Evidence

Belyaev, for example, accepted that the Prophet was a historical figure. His Arabs, Islam and the Arab Caliphate in the Early Middle Ages placed heavy emphasis on the role of the physical environment in the rise of Islam. More specifically, Islam was a religion that arose to serve the interests of the slave-owning mercantile bourgeoisie of Mecca and Medina. The Qur’an was not revealed by the Prophet, but concocted after the latter’s death. Early Islamic society made the transition from a slave-owning patriarchal society to a more advanced feudalism. — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 418

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how did Soviet Marxist stage-theory readings of early Islam compare to Western materialist historians of the same period?
• ADDENDUM: The claim that Islam arose to serve the slave-owning mercantile bourgeoisie parallels how the sacrifice and dress essays treat cultural practices as class-serving ideology — the same demystifying gesture, here applied by Marxists.
• XREF: connects to: Soviet scholars balanced anti-Islamic propaganda with recognition of Islam’s progressive movements

Related

• Soviet scholars balanced anti-Islamic propaganda with recognition of Islam’s progressive movements (similarity 0.91)
• Marxist critics read the Qur’an as bourgeois ideology promising workers otherworldly paradise (similarity 0.78)
• Marxist scholars interpreted early Islam as a political and economic movement. (similarity 0.78)