Page 358 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

338 THE HISTORY OF THE QUR'ANIC TEXT

found in the Hijaz [western Arabia] or indeed anywhere in the area
surveyed.... Furthermore, the archaeological work has revealed no trace qf
Jewish settlement at Medina, Xaybar or VVadi al-OJIrra. Both these points
contrast directly with the Muslim literary sources' descriptions of the
demographic composition of the pre-Islamic Hijaz. 61

Koren and Nevo claim that, by contrast, a plethora of evidence for
paganism exists in the Central Negev (southern Palestine), an area dis-
regarded by Muslim sources. Excavated shrines indicate that paganism
was still practiced there until the outset of the Abbasid reign (mid-eighth
century C.E.), meaning that a considerable region of the Negev main-
tained its pagan identity through the first 150 years of Islam. These shrines,
and the surrounding topography, are highly analogous (they allege) to the
descriptions of Hejazl pagan sites as quoted by Muslim sources.

Thus the archaeologicalevidenceindicates that the pagan sanctuaries
described in the Muslim sources did not exist in the ]ahili Hijaz, but
sanctuaries strongly resembling them did exist in the Central Negev
until soon after the Abbasidscame to power. This in turn suggests thatthe
accounts qfJahilireligion in the HiJaz could well be back-projections qf apaganism
actually knownfrom later andelsewhere.62

If we accept Koren and Nevo's assertion, that there is no proof of
Jewish settlements in Hejaz during the time of the Prophet, the logical result
would be the denial of all the verses relating toJews since they could not
possibly have been 'authored' by Muhammad, The Muslim community
must therefore have appended them at a later stage and falsely claimed
them as Qjir'an; restoring the Book to its 'original' form (as supposedly
penned by Muhammad) requires the prompt removal of these fraudulent,
anti-Semitic passages. And, if we believe that the pre-Islamic paganism
cited in the Qur'an and sunna is simply a fictitious back-projection of a
culture that flourished in southern Palestine, then by extension the fIgure
of Muhammad himself becomes questionable. A back-projection perhaps
of the ancient remnants of rabbinical presence in Palestine, making Koren
and Neve's remarks a perfect fIt with Wansbrough's theories. In this way
Muslims become indebted to Judaism for providing the fictitious basis of
their very identity and historical origins, which in turn serves as further
motivation for the abolishment of all verses reproachingJewry.

61 J. Koren and YD. Nevo, "Methodological Approaches to Islamic Studies", Der
Islam, Band 68, Heft 1, 1991, p. 101. Emphasis added.
62 ibid, p. 102. Emphasis added.