rationalskepticism.org

duvduv wrote:How sure are people that the Quranic religion of Islam originated in the 7th century in the name of someone named Muhammad when so little information exists about this alleged 7th century religion until the 9th century under the Abbasid caliphate?
Isn't it more than possible that the Quranic religion unified a number of Arab monotheistic-friendly sects under the caliphate not unlike the NT religion under Constantine?

So much is left unanswered about the origins of Islam because even secular scholars adhere devotedly to the traditional Muslim narrative about its origins in the 7th century. Despite the fact that Mecca was not a large trading center. Despite the fact biographies of Muhammad did not emerge until the 9th century at the hands of Al Tabari in the 9th century allegedly based on works by Ibn Ishaq. Despite the fact that all descriptions of Muhammad from non-Arab sources describe Arabs led by a warlord named Mhmet, which could be Mahmud, Muhammad and even Ahmad. Even contemporary Jewish sources make no mention of the emergence of a new religion that allegedly swept through North Africa and into Iraq just shortly after the said death of the traditional Muhammad. Indeed, was there actually a Muslim "conquest" process at all, or merely an acceptance of the Arabs, not unlike the virtual painless surrender of Jerusalem to Saladin?