Hi again Yeezevee,
I have only listened to the fourth podcast and It was a okay introduction to the subject matter.
Not just those blogs,
I would consider much of the published history of Islam since 1950 from the academic departments as only introductory exploration of the subject dear Mahgraye., Most of them do not want to question traditional Islamic history ., there are few exceptions such as late dr patricia crone
Altara,
I get the feeling that anyone who does not hold your view of these matters is not a historian and a real scholar. Sinai actually acknowledges that the traditional Arabic source have a theological or salvation-historical agenda. One does not become a Muslim if one believes in some accepts some parts of the sira. I believe Sinai addresses some of this the first podcast.
No i would disagree with it ., What all Altara, asking for is Mecca of/ in Quran and Mecca of hadith..
anyways, i would like to stress one more point on this
i agree with most of what you say but I question that assumption of yours dear Altara...
Islam is a faith of few words and they are, "There is no god but god". And any faith head in god from any religion could in principle be a Muslim if he/she believes in "no god but god" hypothesis .. rest of Islam is silly rituals and children stories..
And for that "no god but god" belief. or to inquire that (NOT ENFORCE THAT) belief, you can follow any culture any religion and practice any silly personal rituals...
.... monotheism is NOT monopoly of Islam... there are plenty of online resources on that
http://www.humanreligions.info/monotheism.html Monotheism is a religion or belief system that involves just one God. Different religions have different numbers and types of gods. Those with no Gods such as Buddhism and Taoism are atheist religions, and Humanism is an atheist philosophy. Those with many Gods are polytheist, including Hinduism, ancient Roman Religions, Wicca, most types of Paganism and old Semite religions. The most famous monotheistic religions are Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism.
Judaism, Christianity, Islam are called the "Abrahamic religions" because they share the same set of Hebrew stories featuring Abraham, who may have lived in around the 19th century BCE, although some scholars today question his status as a historical figure1. The Bible and the Qur'an contain accounts of Abraham that are "somewhat different"1 and there is no archaeological or genetic evidence that any peoples in the Middle East are descended from such a father-figure. David Leeming in "Jealous Gods & Chosen People: The Mythology of the Middle East" calls him a "mythical hero and father"2.
Most monotheistic religions have a god that has certain common characteristics, and it is this type of religion and this type of god that this website is largely about. The typical monotheistic god is Omnipotent (infinitely powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), the supreme creator and First Cause of all existence, benevolent (perfectly and purely good-natured) and personal (it cares about, and communicates with, individual people). More about the assumed character-traits of the monotheistic god: "The Assumptions about God and Creation, of Both Theists and Atheists" by Vexen Crabtree (2014)
Monotheism is Ancient
Monotheism is an ancient idea, and it appears in various religions and cultures for thousands of years before the emergence of modern-day monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The idea was codified most clearly in ancient Greece amongst the pagan sages, but long before then it had already appeared in Egypt, 3400 years ago and perhaps as long as 4000 years ago.
“Monotheism probably owes its origins to ancient Egypt. From 1379BC to 1362BC, during the time that the Israelites lived there, the country was ruled by Amenhotep IV. He substituted a universal and virtually exclusive supreme god, Aten, for the traditional polytheistic pantheon [...]. So convinced was Amenhotep of the existence of this supreme deity that he changed his name to Akhenaten, meaning literally, "raising the high name of Aten".
No icon of this super-deity was allowed but, in Akhenaten's imagination, the god was symbolized by the disc of the sun, first winged and with outstretched hands in imagery made famous by various Hollywood movies, and then more stylized with the cobra symbol of the goddess Wadjet. [...] The god Aten and the notion of the pharaoh returning to his creator, the Sun, was in use in at least 2000 BC.”
Robert Schroëder (2007)3
“Five hundred years before Christ, Xenophanes had already written: 'There is one God, always still and at rest, who moves all things with the thoughts of his mind.' The legendary Egyptian sage Hermes Trismegistus is credited with teaching: 'Do you think there are many Gods? That's absurd - God is one.' [...] The Pagan sage Maximus of Tyre declared: 'The one doctrine upon which all the world is united is that one God is king of all and father.'”
"The Jesus Mysteries"
Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy (1999) [Book Review]4
Pythagorus, the famous mathematician and leader of a pagan religion, preached single-god pantheism as part of a mystery religion. Jewish monotheism was not present at the inception of Judaism - "early Jewish texts indicate that 'the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob' was seen as the most powerful among the many gods and goddesses [...] but by about 700 BCE, belief in the existence of only one God (monotheism) had become common in Judaism"5. Christianity started out diverse, with a various number of gods, but from the 4th century the idea of the Trinity was made prominent. The confusion and battles between polytheistic Christians and Trinitarian ones led to an opening into which a new religion quickly spread. This new religion was clear, unambiguous and stern about how many Gods there were: exactly one. Islam converted nearly half the Roman Empire, and the Qur'an specifically condemns the Trinity as non-monotheistic.
Topic: Qur'anic studies today