Scholars have long questioned the traditional accounts of the origins of Islam. Most of what we know comes from Islamic manuscripts written some 200-300 years after Islam began. Did those later writers clearly understand their history, or were they presenting the popular views of their time?
Canadian historian Dan Gibson has pieced together a different Islamic history using the archaeological record rather than manuscript evidence alone. He has compiled a database of the remains of over 200 early mosques and places of prayer in Islam, revealing a surprising and sometimes shocking account of the genesis of Islam and its spread. Could this really be true?
This book examines Gibson's research data as well as a statistical analysis by Dr. Walter Schumm and Zvi Goldstein. Gibson, along with Chad Doell, examine how this new data changes and yet fits the manuscript accounts. The scholarly objections of Dr. David King are also examined and answered.
Gibson's initial research was the subject of a 90 minute 2016 documentary film: The Sacred City. Now eight years later Gibson's research is complete and published here in print.