Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

William M. Watt, fully William Montgomery Watt

Scottish Historian, Professor in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh

"Do not put your faith in what statistics say until you have carefully considered what they do not say."

"There is some evidence that, besides his regular marriages and his unions with concubines, Muhammad had relations with women in accordance with the older matrilineal customs."

"Firstly, at one time, Muhammad must have publicly recited the Satanic verses as part of the Quran; it is unthinkable that the story could have been invented later by Muslims or foisted upon them by non-Muslims. Secondly, at some later time Muhammad announced that these verses were not really part of the Quran and should be replaced by others of a vastly different import."