Muhammad: A Critical Biography by Robert Spencer

Muhammad: A Critical Biography

What can we really know about him?

By Robert Spencer

We know a great deal about Muhammad - or so it seems. Islamic tradition contains an astonishing wealth of information about the founding figure of the Islamic faith, and most historians take for granted that this material is generally reliable. In his latest book, Muhammad: A Critical Biography, historian and Islamic scholar Robert Spencer takes a detailed look at the Islamic traditions regarding Muhammad and lays bare their contradictions, inconsistences, and incoherence.

Robert Spencer goes where establishment historians fear to tread, taking a deep dive into the Islamic traditions regarding Muhammad and revealing how much actual variation there is in what is generally presented as a unified portrait of the prophet of Islam.

In Muhammad: A Critical Biography, you’ll learn:

·    The story of Muhammad in Islamic tradition is not one of the noble founders of a great religion; Islamic tradition depicts him as a warlord, a murderer, a rapist, a thief, and even worse.

·    Much of the behavior of Islamic terrorists goes back to their imitating the example of Muhammad, who did the kinds of things they do today and is revered in the Qur'an as the "excellent example" (33:21); if he were alive today, he'd be the leader of ISIS.

·    Because terrorism is justified by Muhammad's example, it can't be eradicated from Islam.

·    Most of the stories about Muhammad are contradicted by other stories in Islamic tradition. Some stories even say he originally had a different name and was visited not by Gabriel, but by another angel. They're more legend than fact and were created for political purposes.

·    Even if the stories about Muhammad are not historically accurate, it's important for us to know what they say, as Islamic terrorists imitate what they think Muhammad did every day. The stories of his life have caused more destruction than the stories of anyone else's life throughout history, whether they're fact or fiction.

Robert Spencer shows that there is no agreement in the earliest Islamic sources about the most fundamental details of this towering figure’s life. There are conflicting accounts of key details of his life, including the circumstances and contents of the first revelation he claimed to have received from Allah; the year of his birth; the length of his prophetic career; the name of the angel who supposedly appeared to him; and even his own name. 

In Muhammad: A Critical Biography, Spencer continues the groundbreaking research he began in The Truth About Muhammad and Did Muhammad Exist? exposing the shocking reality of how shaky Islam’s foundations really are. He meticulously explains why competing traditions may have been invented and definitively demonstrates that, contrary to the complacency of establishment historians, the Muhammad of Islam is more legend than history, more fable than fact.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is the author of twenty-eight books, including bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad, The History of Jihad, and The Critical Qur’an. Spencer has led seminars on Islam and jihad for the FBI, the United States Central Command, United States Army Command and General Staff College, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council, and the U.S. intelligence community. He is a senior fellow with the Center for Security Policy and is a regular columnist for PJ Media and FrontPage Magazine.