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Author Topic: Muslim coins with Christian cross and the name Mohammed
mena7
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http://academicatheism.tumblr.com/post/64217273791/jesus-the-muhammad

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They did not slay him, neither crucified him" (Qur’an 4:157). Would the caliph, the leader of a religious group that claimed it a blasphemy for a rival religion to regard Jesus as the Son of God, really place the crowning symbol of that rival religion on his public inscriptions? Would the leader of a religious group whose founding prophet claimed that Jesus would return at the end of the world and "break all crosses"—as an insult to himself and a testament to the transcendent majesty of Allah—really allow a cross to be featured on any inscription carved anywhere in his domains?

Would the followers of this new prophet, whose new religious and political order was defiantly at odds with that of the “cross worshippers,” have placed any figure bearing a cross on any of their coinage? Perhaps this can be interpreted as a gesture of Islam’s tolerance, given that Christians overwhelmingly populated the domains of the new Arabian Empire. Yet Islamic law as codified in the ninth and tenth centuries forbade Christians to display the cross openly—even on the outside of churches—and there is no indication that the imposition of this law was a reversal of an earlier practice. So it is exceedingly curious that Muslim conquerors of Christians would strike a coin bearing the central image of the very religion and political order they despised, defeated, and were determined to supplant.

Other coins from this period also bear the cross and the word Muhammad. A Syrian coin that dates from 686 or 687, at the earliest, features what numismatist Volker Popp describes as “the muhammad motto” on the reserve side. The obverse depicts a ruler crowned with a cross and holding another cross.

image

The most obvious explanation is that the “muhammad” to whom the coin refers is not the prophet of Islam. Alternatively, the figure on the coin could have evolved into the Muahmmad of Islam but was not much like him at the time the coin was issued. Or it may be that the word muhammad is not a name at all but a title, meaning the “praised one” or the “chosen one.” Popp, noting that some of these seventh-century cross-bearing coins also bear the legend bismillah—“in the name of God”—as well as muhammad, suggests that the coins are saying of the depicted ruler, “He is chosen in the name of god,” or “Let him be praised in the name of God.”

This could be a derivative of the common Christian liturgical phrase referring to the coming of Christ: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” In that case, the muhammad, the praised or blessed one, would be Jesus himself.

Supporting this possibility is the fact that the few times the Qur’an mentions Muhammad by name, the references are not clearly to the prophet of Islam but work equally well as general exhortations to obey that which was revealed to the “praised one,” who could be someone else. Jesus is the most likely candidate, because, as we have seen, the Qur’an tells believers that “Muhammad is nothing but a messenger; messengers have passed away before him” (3:144), using language identical to that it later uses of Jesus: “the Messiah, the son of Mary, is nothing but a messenger; messengers have passed away before him” (5:75). This opens the possibility that here, as elsewhere, Jesus is the one being referred to as the “praised one,” the muhammad.

The first biographer of Muhammad, Ibn Ishaq, lends additional support to this possibility. Recall that in Qur’an 61:6, Jesus is depicted as prophesying the coming of a new “Messenger of God,” “whose name shall be Ahmad.” Because Ahmad—the “praised one”—is a variant of Muhammad, Islamic scholars take this passage to be a reference to the prophet of Islam. Ibn Ishaq amplifies this view in his biography of Muhammad, quoting “the Gospel,” the New Testament, where Jesus says that “when the Comforter [Munahhemana] has come who God will send to you from the Lord’s presence, and the spirit of truth which will have gone forth from the Lord’s presence, he (shall bear) witness of me and ye also, because ye have been with me from the beginning. I have spoken unto you about this that ye should not be in doubt. Ibn Ishaq then explains: “the Munahhemana (God bless and preserve him!) in Syriac is Muhammad; in Greek he is the paraclete.”

Ibn Ishaq’s English translator Alfred Guillaume notes that the word Munahhemana “in the Eastern patristic literature…is applied to our Lord Himself”—that is, not to Muhammad but to Jesus. The original bearer of the title “praised one” was Jesus, and this title and the accompanying prophecy were “skillfully manipulated to provide the reading we have” in Ibn Ishaq’s biography of Muhammad—and, for that matter, in the Qur’an itself.

Whichever of these possibilities is correct, the weakest hypothesis is that these muhammad coins refer to the prophet of the new religion as he is depicted in the Qur’an and the Hadith. For there are no contemporary references to Muhammad, the Islamic prophet who received the Qur’an and preached its message to unify Arabia (often by force) and whose followers then carried his jihad far beyond Arabia; the first clear records of the Muhammad of Islam far postdate these coins.

Spencer, Robert. Did Muhammad Exist?: An Inquiry Into Islam’s Obscure Origins, p. 44-46. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2012. Print.

#atheism #history #islam #christianity #muhammad #jesus christ

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Abd al-Malik depicted on the first coins in history indicating Muslim influence in the Arab world – over 100 years after Muhammad was suppose to have died. al-Malik appears on the coins with the same description given to prophet Mohammed

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Dinar of Arab Type (obverse and reverse), 694/695. Probably made in Damascus. Gold; 13/16 in. (2 cm); wt: 4.5 g. The American Numismatic Society, New York (1970.63.1)

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Comparison of a gold Dinar of the Caliph Abd al-Malik from 693 CE and a ceremonial coin of the Byzantine Emperor Constans II struck 652-654 CE. The connection with the fall of Mecca and the victory over the rival Caliph Abd Allah ibn Zubair in 692 CE

http://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/was-caliph-abd-al-malik-the-real-creator-and-the-prophet-of-the-quran-a-historical-perspective/


Was Caliph Abd Al-Malik the real creator and the prophet of the Quran?

Posted on September 2, 2012 by Admin 6 Comments















5 Votes


Many theologians and historians reveal that the historical evidence of the actual existence of prophet Muhammad [571-632AD] cannot be verified. There appears to be no supporting evidence that a known prophet was active in Arabia in the sixth century. There is no mention of Muhammad anywhere in stones, script, monuments, or other sources from the Middle East during his actual lifetime. No mention of Muslims living in the area are found either. Buildings and remains show that no reference to Muslims, Islam or Muhammad existed anywhere in the region Muhammad was suppose to have lived in to prove Muhammad’s historical presence.

The first mention of Muhammad doesn’t appear until decades after Muhammad’s presumed death, and only begin to take shape under the active rule of the brutal, cruel and conquering Abd al Malik ibn Marwan [646–705AD] the 5th Umayyad Caliph.

The Oldest Quran in the world:

In 1972 during the restoration of the great mosque of Sarna, capital of Yemen, workers discovered a mash of old parchments. Dr Gerd R Puin, a Quranic expert studied the find. Dr Gerd dated it at between 705 and 715 AD. It is the oldest datable Quran in the world but was created 70 years after Mohammed’s death. Fragments from nearly 1000 different Quran’s had been studied and compared with the Sarna Quran and the dates could be well established. The Sarna Quran show that verses and chapters had been changed, reformulated and rearranged. So the Quran was not a single product or a single entity that was fixed by 650AD but developed much, much later hence the overlaying of texts in different dialects with over 30 different meanings. What is a more plausible explanation?

– Abd al Malik, the Umayyad Caliph, compiled the Quran from fragmented plagiarism taken from ancient Christianity, Judaism and Zorohastrian – the common religions of the region during Abd al Malik’s raids and looting sprees.
— The individual words in the oldest Quran in the world [705-715 AD, seventy years after Muhammad's death], have been washed off and rewritten with layered revisions. Words have been changed, entire chapters re-arranged.
— Original text is unstable and can have over 30 different meanings, showing it was not transferred word by word. Most likely these many different layers and changes come from adapting plagiarized materials Abd al Malik came across in his lootings from existing religions. The identical passages can be found in other religious teachings, which were more than 500 years older than the Quran.
— Abd al Malik then begin to make the first efforts to spread the Islamic teachings, conquering and looting many regions, killing entire tribes and people to invade their towns and areas.
— The prayers towards Mecca was likely established because Abd al Malik was born in Mecca, and was the ruler and wanted to be worshiped and honored as one.

Our claim go even further and claim that Abd al Malik and Muhammad is actually one and the same person. Muhammad was a word/name used as a term of veneration. Leaders in the medieval times were often referred to as ‘divine’ personality to avoid being questioned by the people. Abd al Malik was born in Mecca, like Muhammad. Al Malik invaded Medina with a 12,000 strong Syrian army of which 10,000 died, exactly like Muhammad. Abd al Malik built the Dome of the Rock over the tomb of Abraham in Jerusalem to show his conquest and supremacy over the jews. Why was this necessary if the area was already made Islamic under Muhammad’s invasions over one century earlier? Muhammad is said to have flown on a winged donkey to Jerusalem. Nut why would Al Malik invade Medina when Muhammad had already done this and presumably turned it Islamic 100 years prior? Incidentally the description of Abd al Malik and Muhammad are almost identical…

Therefore Muslims are not following the instruction of a prophet, but those of a brutal Caliph.

Abd al Malik ibn Marwan

Yitzchak Schwartz, Intern, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters

Posted: Thursday, June 21, 2012


Born in Mecca and raised in Medina, the two most holy sites of Islam, the fifth caliph, Abd Al Malik Ibn Marwan, spearheaded the creation of many of the institutions that centralized the Islamic empire around his capital in Damascus and asserted its independence from Byzantine traditions.

At the time of his ascent to the throne, the caliphate had lost several important wars to the Byzantines, and local rulers had more autonomy. Abd al Malik went to war with several local rulers, reasserting Umayyad control, and established institutions such as a postal service and a new, unified currency based in Damascus. He also oversaw the construction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, which celebrated the location of the ascent of Prophet Muhammad and proclaimed Islamic dominance over Jerusalem, the holy city of Judaism and Christianity. The Dome of the Rock was also meant to compete with the great Byzantine holy sites in the region.

Dome of the Rock

Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, completed 691/692. © Scala / Art Resource

Since it allowed trade in the Islamic world to function independently of the Byzantine empire, currency reform proved to be one of the most important of Abd Al Malik’s innovations, and ultimately was a major cause of war with the Byzantine emperor Justinian II. Soon, the new Islamic coinage developed its own iconography, some bearing the likeness of the caliph.

coin coin

Dinar of Arab Type (obverse and reverse), 694/695. Probably made in Damascus. Gold; 13/16 in. (2 cm); wt: 4.5 g. The American Numismatic Society, New York (1970.63.1)

While the transition from Byzantine to Islamic rule in the Near East has often been imagined to have been very abrupt, this exhibition reveals that the process was actually gradual, and that there were many continuities between Byzantine and Islamic rule. Abd Al Malik’s reign was a critical step in the Islamicization of the Southern Mediterranean, even as his developments built on Byzantine precedents and innovations.


Abd al-Malik depicted on the first coins in history indicating Muslim influence in the Arab world – over 100 years after Muhammad was suppose to have died. al-Malik appears on the coins with the same description given to prophet Mohammed.

A script of elegance and symmetry

by Venetia Porter, curator, British Museum

The gold dinar struck in the year 77 of the Islamic calendar, (AD 696-7) is significant for a number of reasons: it is the first issue of Islamic coinage without pictorial representation and represents a decisive break away from a coinage that hitherto had imitated the coins of the Sasanians and the Byzantines, whose territories had been incorporated into the new Muslim empire.

This dinar was struck by Abd al-Malik, fifth of the Umayyad caliphs (reigned AD 685-705) – the Umayyads being the first great dynasty of Islam (AD 661-750) whose capital was at Damascus in Syria. Abd al-Malik not only initiated the reform of the coinage but was also responsible for the construction of one of the most iconic buildings in the Islamic world, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, part of an ambitious plan to build up and consolidate the Muslim presence in Greater Syria. Quite apart from the significance of this coin for the monetary history of the Islamic world, the style of the coin also tells another important story.

The inscriptions proclaim the very essence of the faith of Islam and include the phrase: ‘there is no god but God, he has no associate, Muhammad is the prophet of God’, in addition to other verses from the Qur’an (Qur’an 9:33 and 112). Qur’anic texts also appear in the Dome of the Rock made of mosaic placed high up on the walls of the ambulatory and they are written in the style of script known as Kufic.

Arabic was an oral language only until the Revelation to the Prophet Muhammad in early seventh century Arabia. It developed as a script in order to set down the words of the Revelation to prevent them being lost. The alphabet adopted was one that was based on a style of Aramaic script used by the Nabateans whose capital was at Petra in Jordan. Early developments evolved into Kufic an exceptionally elegant script characterised by letters that are simple and angular in shape. What is crucial about Abd al-Malik’s dinar is that along with the inscriptions in the Dome of the Rock, they both provide us with the concrete markers we need to understand the evolution of this remarkable script: the dinar is dated 77/696-7 and the Dome of the Rock was completed in 72/692. This tells us that by the late seventh century a script had evolved that was intended to reflect and honour the beauty and power of the Revelation. It was as effective written on a tiny coin as large scale on the walls of the Dome of the Rock.

Script became a defining feature of Islamic art developing, over the centuries, complex rules to create elegance and symmetry. Such is the flexibility of the Arabic script that even today, some 1400 years after the appearance of the Kufic script on Abd al-Malik’s dinar, it continues to provide inspiration for modern calligraphers.

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Comparison of a gold Dinar of the Caliph Abd al-Malik from 693 CE and a ceremonial coin of the Byzantine Emperor Constans II struck 652-654 CE. The connection with the fall of Mecca and the victory over the rival Caliph Abd Allah ibn Zubair in 692 CE.


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CONSTANS II. 641-668 AD. AR Half Miliaresion or Siliqua (2.07 g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Struck 652-654 AD. d N CONSTAN TINUS PP AV, Constans, crowned and wearing chlamys, standing facing, holding globus cruciger.

In the 7th century, the silver Milaresion was no longer being issued except for very rare commemorative occasions. The obverse type of this ceremonial issue has only one parallel, in the follis of Constans dated Indictional year 11 (652/3 AD), struck at Syracuse (SB 1108), and is probably contemporary with the miliaresion issue (SB 986) with facing bust. It is uncertain if there is a specific event to be tied to these issues, and they may have simply been distributed to worthy members of the imperial court and important guests. Curiously, this standing figure seems to provide the closest design prototype for a unique miliaresion of Justinian II (SB 1257A) and the subsequent coin struck by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik in 693 CE (77 AH).

Any examples out there of the silver Milaresion of Justinian II (SB 1257A)?
However, the Byzantine Emperor Constans II was one of only two Byzantine Emperors (the other being his father Heraclius, d. 641 CE) who were known for their full, long beards on their coins. If the Muslim Caliph Abd al-Malik needed a prototype for a full bearded figure on a coin, this would have been it. However, there is absolutely no prototype for three figures on the obverse of a coin at this particular period.

These two Byzantine issues were unique, one-of-a-kind commemorative coins. This would also make them an appropriate model for a unique reigious / political statement: The power of the Sunni Umayyad Caliphate over the Shia rebels then current, a different “People of the House” (Pers. “Ahl-i-Bayt”) than the Prophet Muhammad, his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abu Talib, and his daughter Fatima, a Sunni version of this.

There was an even more critical reason to issue a commemorative coin in 693 CE with these particular individuals, the Prophet Muhammad flanked by Abu Bakr and Aisha: In 684 CE, Abd Allah ibn Zubair had proclaimed himself Caliph at Mecca. Abd Allah was a grandson of Abu Bakr’s, and therefore the nephew of Aisha. His mother Asma bint Abu Bakr, Aisha’s sister, was still alive, in her ’90s. In some very important ways Abdullah had a much better claim to the Caliphate than the Umayyads, who had been the early enemies of Muhammad and the leaders of the pagan Meccan opposition to Islam. Mecca, the very heart of Islam, had been occupied for 9 years by a rival bitterly opposed to the Umayyads, who initially met with success in this civil war. Finally, in 692 CE, Mecca fell after a bitter siege, and Abd Allah was slain. The important thing is that Aisha, when she was alive, was the main backer of the Umayyads in the civil war against Ali ibn Abu Talib in the early 650’s and the key figure in the Battle of the Camel, named indirectly after her, that forced Ali to negotiate. So here, we not only have a religoius / political statement against the Shia, but a clear statement of victory over Abdullah ibn az-Zubair, and a sign of the reunification of the House of Islam after many years of civil war, and the final recovery of Mecca for the Damascus-based Umayyad Caliphate.
The story of Asma bint Abu Bakr and the final day of her son Abdullah ibn az-Zubair

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Summary of reasons why this coin must be a portrait of the “Prophet Muhammad” = Abd al-Malik:


In 693 CE, the Byzantine Empire for the very first time issued coins that had Jesus on the obverse, instead of a portait of the reigning emperor or him and his heirs. This image of Jesus was no mere common religious image: This was a copy of the Divine True Image of Christ taken from the sacred relic, the Cloth of Edessa. The very image on the Byzantine coinage was in and of itself a kind of sacred relic, an “image not made by human hands.” This would have caused a serious problem for Muslims: The Byzantine coinage that was in official use by the Caliphate now bore an idolatrous image, a miraculous portrait of Christ as Lord, a kind of holy icon itself worthy of adoration. The legend on the obverse even explicity said “Jesus Christ Lord Savior King of those who rule.” Muslims of course were commanded to destroy all idols and idolatrous images
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This created an immedate need for the Caliphate to issue a coin suitable for Muslims to handle.This substitute for the True Image of Christ was a portrait of the final Messenger of God, in an clearly human fashion, flanked by his closest companion and brother-in-law, and his wife, with the figures shown almost the same size as him. The legend on the obverse even is a part of the very creed of Islam, the Shahada: “Muhammad the apostle of God”, a direct response to the part of the Nicene Creed of Christianity paraphrased on the obverse of the Byzantine coin: “Lord Jesus Christ … his kingdom will never end.."

The single pillar on the reverse vs. the cross potent on the reverse of the contemporary Byzantine coinage. The single pillar on steps mounted by a ball, is a symbol of the central tenet of Islam, the unity of God. This is opposed to the three arms of the cross with bars mounted on steps, and also ending in balls, in addition to being a cross are also a symbol of the Holy Trinity.

The central figure both grasping a sword and gesturing as if preaching, as opposed the the Sign of Blessing made by Jesus on the Byzantine Coin. This explanatory gesture on the Muslim Coin is appropriate to a Messenger of God, but not to a portrait of a Caliph.

The need for an iconographic coinage acceptable to the Byzantines to pay the required tribute to the Byzantine Empire after the defeat of 689 CE, yet one that was distinctively Islamic.

The obverse inscription which says “Muhammad the Prophet of God” but which makes no reference to the ruling Caliph as on all later Muslim coinage.

The unique nature of this coin, with the image being entirely different from that of the contemporary “Standing Caliph” issues, both in the portait of the central figure, and the presence of three figures on the coin.

The complete withdrawal from circulation of this issue upon pain of death just 2 years later.The severity of this decree would not be fitting a mere portrait of a Caliph, but points to a new, total restriction of religious imagery of any kind as idolatrous.

The accordance of the features of the portrait of the central figure with the descriptions of the Prophet Muhammad from the Hadith. e.g. the full beard. This is modelled on the Byzantine coin portrait of the Emperor Constantine II, yet the figure is grasping a sword in the right hand as opposed to a globus cruciger, a Imperial and religioius symbol of universal rule.

The female figure is veiled. At the earliest stage of Islam, only the Prophet’s wives were explicily required to be veiled.

This is also a counter to the Shia trilogy of Muhammad, Ali and Fatima. There is the presence on the coin of the first Caliph Abu Bakr, instead of Ali, who was regarded as the first legitimate Caliph by the Shia. His daughter and Muhammad’s wife Aisha was the rallying point of the Umayyads and directly opposed the right of Ali to be Caliph in the struggle between them. Caliph Abd el-Malik’s father himself, the Caliph Marwan ibn al-Hakam, was a key ally of Fatima’s in the battles of the First Islamic Civil War.

There is a portrait of Abu Bakr and his daughter Aisha vs. Abu Bakr and his other daughter, Aisha’s sister and Abdullah ibn az-Zubair’s mother Asma. The revolt of the anti-Caliph ibn az-Zubair in Mecca, Abu Bakr’s grandson, after twelve years, was finally supressed the year before in 692 CE, This recapture of the holy city of Mecca resulted in the final complete reunification of the Islamic Caliphate under the Umayyads.

Finally, the most compelling reason: A woman bearing a sword – a portrayal of a woman unique in the history of Islam. A fitting portrait for the Prophet Muhammad’s wife Aisha, who played a pivotal role in the civil war between the Caliph Ali and the Umayyad governor of Damascus Muawiya, particularly at the Battle of the Camel in 656 CE, a battle which was explicitly [but indirectly] named for Aisha, who personally played a key role in this battle.

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photo
Taboo Numismatics Part IV: Comparison of the coinage of Christian Byzantine Emperor Justinian II, 685-692 CE [L], and that of the Muslim Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik 693 CE (AH 77) [R]

Left: Byzantine Emperor Justinian II Rhinometus. First reign, 685-695 AD. Gold Solidus (4.45 g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Struck 692-695.

Obverse: Facing bust of Christ holding jewelled Gospel; cross behind head, right hand raised in blessing. 692 CE.
Legend: IHS CRIST D S REX REGINORUM
Latin: Ihesus Cristus Dominus Salvator Rex Reginorum = “Jesus Christ Lord Savior King of Those Who Rule”. This is the very first instance this motto being used on coinage..

Reverse: Cross potent on base of four steps. Struck 685-691 CE. Typical Byzantine reverse pre-692. The cross potent on steps is thought to be a portrayal of the great jewelled cross erected in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on site of the Crucifixion.
Legend: VICTORIA AVGuH
Latin: Victoria Augusti = “Victory of the Emperor” a traditional Roman numismatic legend signifying a recent victory in battle by the Emperor, in this case over the Caliphate in Syria in 689. (S 1247; DO 6)

Right: Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan 77 AH (693 CE).. Gold Dinar, Damascus mint.

Obverse: Center: The Prophet Muhammad, flanked on the left by his Companion and First Caliph Abu Bakr, and on the right by his wife and Abu Bakr’s daughter Aisha. All three are grasping swords in their right hands, including Aisha, and Aisha is wearing a veil.

Reverse: Single column with ball on four steps. Legend: “There is no God but God and Muhammad is the Apostle of God.” (The Muslim profession of faith) and “Damascus Year 77″. The single column is a symbol of the unity of God, as opposed to the cross potent, both a symbol of the Crucifixion of Jesus and a symbol of the Trinity.

It certainly seems that the Islamic type here represented is directly modelled on the previous Byzantine type (the reverse) and the obverse is in clear response to the copy of the face of Jesus from the Mandylion, the “Holy True Image”, a portrait believed “not to have been made by human hands”. The unacceptable ot Muslims Christian profession of the divinity of Jesus was replaced by the Muslim profession of failth on the reverse. and a corresponding true-to-life portrait of the Prophet Muhammad, along with his wife and closest companion, to signify the Prophet’s pure humanity, replaced the “divine” portrait of Jesus as Lord and Savior. The motto on the Byzantine coin “King Over Those Who Rule” is a direct attack as well on the Islamic name of the Caliph Abd al-Malik, which means in Arabic “The Servant of the King”. In Islam, Khalifa [Caliph] in Arabic means “successor [to the Prophet]“. Rulers were “Emir al-Muamin”, the “Commander of the Faithful”, or “Successor”, not “King”. There is only one “King” in Islam, God himself, and not his “Son”.

A Bibliography of Recent Work on Syrian Arab-Byzantine Coinage

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According to the "Taboo Numismatics" site, this early Islamic coin -- a gold dinar issued during the reign of the caliph Abd al-Malik in 693 A.D. -- most likely depicts Mohammed himself. The author of the site makes a strong case that the central figure is Mohammed and that the figures on either side of him are Abu-Bakr (Mohammed's companion) on his left and Aisha (his young wife) on his right. Also suggesting that these now-extremely-rare coins (all now housed in the British Museum) depict Mohammed is the fact that they were all ordered to be destroyed shortly after being minted, which may have been the first instance of an image of Mohammed being seen as inappropriate. The coin was made only 67 years after Mohammed's death (the year 77 of the Islamic era, which dates to his arrival in Medina from Mecca), which would make it far and away the earliest depiction of Mohammed ever made, and possibly even modeled after memories of people who knew him during his lifetime

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The large head and wide mustache of Mohammed in this portait may have been modelled after this coin of Byzantine Emperor Constans II (seen on the right) which was struck decades earlier. The Islamic coin also seems to be emulating Byzantine coin designs of the same era which show Jesus on the obverse, in the place where the male figure is on the Islamic coin

http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/islamic_mo_full/

Islamic Depictions of Mohammed in Full


Medieval Muslim artists often created paintings and illuminated manuscripts depicting Mohammed in full. Several examples are presented here. Other artists of the era drew Mohammed, but left his face blank so as to technically comply with a sporadically enforced Islamic ban on depicting the Prophet; these faceless images are shown in the second section of the Archive.

In 1999, Islamic art expert Wijdan Ali wrote a scholarly overview of the Muslim tradition of depicting Mohammed, which can be downloaded here in pdf format. In that essay, Ali demonstrates that the prohibition against depicting Mohammed did not arise until as late as the 16th or 17th century, despite the media's recent false claims that it has always been forbidden for Muslims to draw Mohammed. Until comparatively recently in Islamic history, it was perfectly common to show Mohammed, either in full (as revealed on this page), or with his face hidden (as shown on the next page). Even after the 17th century, up to modern times, Islamic depictions of Mohammed (especially in Shi'ite areas) continued to be produced.

On this page are many examples of full-faced Mohammed portraits produced by Muslim artists across the centuries. Attributions for each image are given where known

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professor Mohamed Svend Kalisch

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professor Mohammed Svend Kalisch


Muslim Professor of Islamic Theology Concludes After Research: Prophet Muhammed Never Existed

Posted on September 29, 2013 by Admin 30 Comments















8 Votes


Professor Hired for Outreach to Muslims Delivers a Jolt

Islamic Theologian’s Theory: It’s Likely the Prophet Muhammad Never Existed

By ANDREW HIGGINS | The Wall Street Journal

MÜNSTER, Germany — Muhammad Sven Kalisch, a Muslim convert and Germany’s first professor of Islamic theology, fasts during the Muslim holy month, doesn’t like to shake hands with Muslim women and has spent years studying Islamic scripture. Islam, he says, guides his life.

So it came as something of a surprise when Prof. Kalisch announced the fruit of his theological research. His conclusion: The Prophet Muhammad probably never existed.


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Theology Without Muhammad

Read a translated excerpt from “Islamic Theology Without the Historic Muhammad — Comments on the Challenges of the Historical-Critical Method for Islamic Thinking” by Professor Kalisch.
___________________________

Muslims, not surprisingly, are outraged. Even Danish cartoonists who triggered global protests a couple of years ago didn’t portray the Prophet as fictional. German police, worried about a violent backlash, told the professor to move his religious-studies center to more-secure premises.

“We had no idea he would have ideas like this,” says Thomas Bauer, a fellow academic at Münster University who sat on a committee that appointed Prof. Kalisch. “I’m a more orthodox Muslim than he is, and I’m not a Muslim.”

When Prof. Kalisch took up his theology chair four years ago, he was seen as proof that modern Western scholarship and Islamic ways can mingle — and counter the influence of radical preachers in Germany. He was put in charge of a new program at Münster, one of Germany’s oldest and most respected universities, to train teachers in state schools to teach Muslim pupils about their faith.

Muslim leaders cheered and joined an advisory board at his Center for Religious Studies. Politicians hailed the appointment as a sign of Germany’s readiness to absorb some three million Muslims into mainstream society. But, says Andreas Pinkwart, a minister responsible for higher education in this north German region, “the results are disappointing.”

Prof. Kalisch, who insists he’s still a Muslim, says he knew he would get in trouble but wanted to subject Islam to the same scrutiny as Christianity and Judaism. German scholars of the 19th century, he notes, were among the first to raise questions about the historical accuracy of the Bible.

Many scholars of Islam question the accuracy of ancient sources on Muhammad’s life. The earliest biography, of which no copies survive, dated from roughly a century after the generally accepted year of his death, 632, and is known only by references to it in much later texts. But only a few scholars have doubted Muhammad’s existence. Most say his life is better documented than that of Jesus.


[Sven Muhammad Kalish]Left: Muhammad Sven Kalisch

“Of course Muhammad existed,” says Tilman Nagel, a scholar in Göttingen and author of a new book, “Muhammad: Life and Legend.” The Prophet differed from the flawless figure of Islamic tradition, Prof. Nagel says, but “it is quite astonishing to say that thousands and thousands of pages about him were all forged” and there was no such person.

All the same, Prof. Nagel has signed a petition in support of Prof. Kalisch, who has faced blistering criticism from Muslim groups and some secular German academics. “We are in Europe,” Prof. Nagel says. “Education is about thinking, not just learning by heart.”

Prof. Kalisch’s religious studies center recently removed a sign and erased its address from its Web site. The professor, a burly 42-year-old, says he has received no specific threats but has been denounced as apostate, a capital offense in some readings of Islam.

“Maybe people are speculating that some idiot will come and cut off my head,” he said during an interview in his study.

A few minutes later, an assistant arrived in a panic to say a suspicious-looking digital clock had been found lying in the hallway. Police, called to the scene, declared the clock harmless.

A convert to Islam at age 15, Prof. Kalisch says he was drawn to the faith because it seemed more rational than others. He embraced a branch of Shiite Islam noted for its skeptical bent. After working briefly as a lawyer, he began work in 2001 on a postdoctoral thesis in Islamic law in Hamburg, to go through the elaborate process required to become a professor in Germany.

The Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. that year appalled Mr. Kalisch but didn’t dent his devotion. Indeed, after he arrived at Münster University in 2004, he struck some as too conservative. Sami Alrabaa, a scholar at a nearby college, recalls attending a lecture by Prof. Kalisch and being upset by his doctrinaire defense of Islamic law, known as Sharia.

In private, he was moving in a different direction. He devoured works questioning the existence of Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Then “I said to myself: You’ve dealt with Christianity and Judaism but what about your own religion? Can you take it for granted that Muhammad existed?”

He had no doubts at first, but slowly they emerged. He was struck, he says, by the fact that the first coins bearing Muhammad’s name did not appear until the late 7th century — six decades after the religion did.

He traded ideas with some scholars in Saarbrücken who in recent years have been pushing the idea of Muhammad’s nonexistence. They claim that “Muhammad” wasn’t the name of a person but a title, and that Islam began as a Christian heresy.

Prof. Kalisch didn’t buy all of this. Contributing last year to a book on Islam, he weighed the odds and called Muhammad’s existence “more probable than not.” By early this year, though, his thinking had shifted. “The more I read, the historical person at the root of the whole thing became more and more improbable,” he says.

He has doubts, too, about the Quran. “God doesn’t write books,” Prof. Kalisch says.

Some of his students voiced alarm at the direction of his teaching. “I began to wonder if he would one day say he doesn’t exist himself,” says one. A few boycotted his lectures. Others sang his praises.

Prof. Kalisch says he “never told students ‘just believe what Kalisch thinks’ ” but seeks to teach them to think independently. Religions, he says, are “crutches” that help believers get to “the spiritual truth behind them.” To him, what matters isn’t whether Muhammad actually lived but the philosophy presented in his name.

This summer, the dispute hit the headlines. A Turkish-language German newspaper reported on it with gusto. Media in the Muslim world picked up on it.

Germany’s Muslim Coordinating Council withdrew from the advisory board of Prof. Kalisch’s center. Some Council members refused to address him by his adopted Muslim name, Muhammad, saying that he should now be known as Sven.

German academics split. Michael Marx, a Quran scholar at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, warned that Prof. Kalisch’s views would discredit German scholarship and make it difficult for German scholars to work in Muslim lands. But Ursula Spuler-Stegemann, an Islamic studies scholar at the University of Marburg, set up a Web site called solidaritymuhammadkalisch.com and started an online petition of support.

Alarmed that a pioneering effort at Muslim outreach was only stoking antagonism, Münster University decided to douse the flames. Prof. Kalisch was told he could keep his professorship but must stop teaching Islam to future school teachers.

The professor says he’s more determined than ever to keep probing his faith. He is finishing a book to explain his thoughts. It’s in English instead of German because he wants to make a bigger impact. “I’m convinced that what I’m doing is necessary. There must be a free discussion of Islam,” he says.

—Almut Schoenfeld in Berlin contributed to this article

http://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2013/09/29/muslim-professor-of-islamic-theology-concludes-after-research-prophet-muhammed-never-existed/

Hidden History of Islam, Islam a Sect of Christianity.
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