Part 2 (A) - The Example of The Uninformed

'Whence Islam?' - Fruits of Tasteless Polemic
(See Appendix 2 and Appendix 3)

It is self evident, and Smith will be the last to deny the allegation, that the bulk of the material and proposed hypotheses put forward in the arguments of Smith have been plagiarised from the infamous fruits of the work initially started by Wansbrough and then continued by Crone and Cook. His reliance on them is due to the simple fact that they are the only ones who ascribe themselves to these theories. Although it could never be assumed that credit could be given to Smith for concocting such strange theories, it would be hoped that his approach would be reflective of his mentors. One will sadly find, it is not. This is not to say that he is totally autonomous from the many mistakes and absurd assumptions (to be discussed later) carried in the work of Wansbrough, Crone and Cook, this is without doubt clearly apparent. The difference lies in Smith's deep ignorance of the subject matter he is involved in. One cannot deny the astounding scholastic levels reached by the likes of Wansbrough. Juynboll writes about Wansbrough's book Qur'anic Studies, (See Appendix 4).

"Readers who do not have a thorough knowledge of German, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, apart from Arabic and English (the language in which the book is written although that is not obvious in many instances!) will probably find no use for it and are advised not to take it up." (Journal of Semitic Studies).

Can Smith really have a claim to associate himself with the likes of these academics? Perhaps if he did understand what they were actually saying he probably would not have chosen the avenue of thought that they have now become recognised with. It is well known to any student of Islamic Studies, whether they be Muslim or non-Muslim that the approach, now commonly known as the 'de-mythologising' approach propounded by Wansbrough, Crone and Cook is one of the poorest interpretations of Islamic History ever constructed. Totally lacking in any convincing evidence it is merely concerned with inventing a theory and then selecting any evidence which fits that theory, rather than looking for a real explanation of history. N.Daniel says:

"Enemies of this methodology must inevitably say that it consists in . . . magnifying points of evidence in proportion as they conform to an arbitrary theory; and above all in treating anything as definitely having happened, once it has been suggested that it might have." (Journal of Semitic Studies).

The whole approach leaves established methods of Islamic historical analysis for methods which are so defective that at times they cause the authors themselves to abandon them for conventional ones.

What Wansbrough, Crone and Cook can be acknowledged for, and this illustrates the immense difference between them and the contemporary minion Smith is the following; Firstly, analysing history through one's own criteria cannot cause a problem when all one is interested in is expressing one's opinions. This is illustrated perfectly in Wansbrough's own confession about the "conjectural nature" of his work and calls his analysis "strictly experimental" and the "emphatically tentative" nature of his conclusions (QS xi, SM, x). Secondly, if one starts from a position of an already fixed theory, and then looks for evidence to fit that theory, then obviously this is all the evidence one will have acquired. How many times does Smith echo the words: "There is no evidence for . . . ", "There is no mention of . . . "?

There is no evidence, obviously because the writers didn't want the evidence. Again Crone and Cook are happy to admit this. In the preface to the book Hagarism, Crone and Cook tell us that they intend to ignore a rock inscription dated from the mid 600's with the phrase "AHL AL ISLAM". They then carry on in the book to inform that the words MUSLIM and ISLAM appeared in the late 700's!!!

It is in attempting to present this viewpoint as fact, something which his sources would not claim for an instance, that Smith reveals his ignorance and total incomprehension of the very material proffered as the foundation of his theories. If Smith feels that he has uncovered areas which appear to be unanswerable by Muslims due to their apparent ignorance of the questions that are raised then this is accepted. Muslims don't know and do not need to know of the interpretations of any of these so called academics. Crone and Cook tell us this themselves;

"This is a book written by infidels for infidels, and it is based in what from any Muslim perspective must appear an inordinate regard for the testimony of infidel sources." Hagarism(p.viii)

This material was never aimed to be an authoritative exposition on the early history of Islam, or to be read by the general masses, but rather aimed solely for the realm of academia and discussion in scholastic circles.

Humphreys summarises this aptly by saying;

"In the end perhaps we ought to use Hagarism more a 'what-if' exercise than as a research monograph." (Islamic History) (p.85)

Some rather less impressed critics are more direct in their reservations,

"One of the best examples of contemporary Islamophobic Orientalism is in Hagarism: the Making of the Islamic World, by Patricia Crone and Michael Cook . . " tell us Sardur and Davies.

Leonard Binder, under the heading of 'Bad Orientalism', states:

"There is no more outrageously antagonistic critique of Islam than that which calls itself Hagarism"

R. B. Sergeant informs that:

"Hagarism . . . is not only bitterly anti-Islamic in tone, but anti-Arabian. Its superficial fancies are so ridiculous that at first one wonders if it is just a 'leg pull', pure 'spoof'." (Journal of Royal Asiatic Society)

And Joseph Van Ess seems to think that:

" . . . a refutation is perhaps unnecessary since the authors make no effort to prove it (the hypothesis of the book) in detail . . . Where they are only giving a new interpretation of well-known facts, this is not decisive. But where the accepted facts are consciously put upside down, their approach is disastrous." (The Making of Islam)

Lastly, it seems rather insincere for a Christian to use a particular work to criticise another religion, when the writers are as critical of Christianity as of others religions. Crone and Cook inform us that Christianity is an amalgamation of various different cultures, namely Judaism, Roman Imperialism and Hellenism, which clash together to form Christianity, but over time has lost its cohesion and has now fallen apart. This is what Muslims have been claiming for years. Smith should now accept this view of history, part and parcel with the one he is now propounding.