| however, there is no relevant archaeological, epigraphic, or numismatic evidence dating from the time of Muhammad, nor are there any references to him in non-Muslim sources dating from the period before 632 | |
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| These sources contain internal complexities, anachronisms, discrepancies, and contradictions |
597, which notes that many of the details surrounding Muhammad's life as given in the biographies, are "problematic in certain respects, the most important of which is that they represent a tradition of living narrative that is likely to have developed orally for a considerable period before it was given even a relatively fixed written form.
8| "Muhmmad," Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim world• El-Cheikh, Nadia Maria Byzantium Viewed by the Arabs 2004, Harvard University Press p | |
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| Ideally, one would like to be able to check such accounts against contemporary evidence |
The Bustan al-Ukul, by Nathanael ibn al-Fayyumi, edited and translated by David Levine, Columbia University Oriental Studies Vol.
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