let me reverse mundi post a bit and go point by point
Yeez,
I thought Irfan's book on 5th Century Arabs very enlightening (didnt read rest yet...)[/size]. Indeed it is clear that Arabs in general (the ones inside the Byzantine empire and also the ones outside ("the ones who don't have Greek books") were either completely integrated in structured Christianity or were in touch with it already in the 5th C.
mundi..... dear mundi .. YOU NEED TO READ QURAN FIRST before you go to Irfan's books or Greek books,,,
Off course people following Christianity and Judaism were living in Arabia along with other so-called Arab Pagans were living Arabia in fact Altara gave link of mini Arab Kingdoms before Islam .. And Arabic language of that time must be well developed as they were writing songs and sonnets on that language .. To me QURAN IS NOTHING TO DO WITH SUCH ARAB PAGAN FOLKS
..........
To solve this we have to look at every element:
1/ Maybe there was no preaching for 20 years? (very likely this was only narrative)
well true ancient history without proper information on literature and architecture is not an easy task...
2/Maybe the new doctrine was developed in a close circle and not influential until the military use of it ? (plausibel)
may be there was no doctrine and it is constructed after military inquisitions That is what Altara saying all the time .. that word...
9th century frame.. 3/ We overestimate the completeness of the information transfer from 6 C to 21st C? (plausibel)
there is no doubt about that.,
why 6th century to 21st C? In the governing power structures we overestimate the completeness of the information transfer from 2001 to 2019 ...Think about recent US- Iraq War...
4/ Some info containing clues was destroyed later on to promote the new narrative (Gibson says that)? (plausibel but difficult to errase everything)
what kind of clues does he think were destroyed ? I don't know what he says but
He seems to be stuck in that Qiblah black hole of Roman/Arabian Architecture which to me very little to do with Quran writing.....
Maybe other people can think of more elements that need to be solved to make the Quran fit in 6th Arabia?
which Quran?? Why one need to put Quran in to 6th century? you mean present book compilation/plagiarization?? Almost 70 to 80% of the book is filled with the stories from OT &NT...
So finding Arabs being exposed to NT and Hebrew bible to fit with the Quran isnt a problem. The problem is that there is no info on the formative period (pre conquest) that came to us, 21C.
what is this pre-formative period?? what time to what time?? and who was Arab and who was NOT arab at that time?? Were Arabs living Syria? Were Arab living in present Palestine?? were they living in Iraq/Iran border??
Arabia was not Mars. The big Arab population centers were literate and integrated in the church structures. That is the real puzzle here. How come there is no info of this prophet preaching for 20 years???[/b][/font][/i]
Can you name those big population centers/towns/cities of Arabia of 4th and 5th century? And why present Quran need to be compiled in Arabia?? it could have been put together anywhere between Syria and Iran or in Jordan.. Palestine and and move around.. all thy way to that Yemen Sana Mosque..
so many questions to answer dear mundi....
Topic: Qur'anic studies today