Moreover, an Armenian document probably written shortly after 661 identifies him by name and gives a recognisable account of his monotheist preaching. But in any case, this source gives us pretty irrefutable evidence that he was an historical figure. If such a revised date is accurate, the evidence of the Greek text would mean that Mohammed is the only founder of a world religion who is attested in a contemporary source. Some Muslims, however, seem to have correlated this point of origin with the year which came to span 624-5 in the Gregorian calendar rather than the canonical year of 622. The Muslim calendar was instituted after Mohammed's death, with a starting-point of his emigration ( hijra) to Medina (then Yathrib) ten years earlier. Mohammed's death is normally placed in 632, but the possibility that it should be placed two or three years later cannot be completely excluded. It thus conveys the impression that he was actually leading the invasions.

His neighbours in Byzantine Syria got to hear of him within two years of his death at the latest a Greek text written during the Arab invasion of Syria between 632 and 634 mentions that 'a false prophet has appeared among the Saracens' and dismisses him as an impostor on the ground that prophets do not come 'with sword and chariot'. There is no doubt that Mohammed existed, occasional attempts to deny it notwithstanding. For all that, we probably know more about Mohammed than we do about Jesus (let alone Moses or the Buddha), and we certainly have the potential to know a great deal more. In the case of Mohammed, Muslim literary sources for his life only begin around 750-800 CE (common era), some four to five generations after his death, and few Islamicists (specialists in the history and study of Islam) these days assume them to be straightforward historical accounts. Just as one shrine after the other obliterates the contours of the localities in which he was active, so one doctrine after another reshapes him as a figure for veneration and imitation for a vast number of people in times and places that he never knew. It is notoriously difficult to know anything for sure about the founder of a world religion. The prophet Muhammad solves a dispute over lifting the black stone into position at al-Kaaba | Rashid Al-Din.

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