Western scholars uncritically - and often unintentionally - profess Islam themselves, by internalising its mythological points of view. An example is the etymology of the word kalifa, allegedly meaning successor to Muhammad, while the full term is not khalifat muhammad but khalifat allah: god’s representative. Maybe a minor detail, but very significant, because then Muhammad is described as the role model. New, more daring and independently minded research argues that Muhammad cannot have existed, which of course would turn the tables on this whole IS ideology, for instance: tingismagazine/article/islam_arabs_and_the_hijra.html A orientalist numismatic has already pointed out that empires that don’t leave traces in the form of coinage simply cannot have existed in reality: the consequence is that there were no caliphates. The history of early Islam still has to be written, so historically speaking, Islamic political nostalgy is built on quicksand.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 06:36:51 +0000
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