Religion/politics

Tom Holland, writing in In the Shadow of the Sword, suggests that Mohammed was reacting to the monotheistic ideas that may have prevailed in the borders between Arabia and Christiandom. This seems to accord with Mohammed's understanding of religious views of his time. He may have erroneously believed that Christianity had a female deity. Holland believes that Mohammed was influenced by gnostic gospels and that accounts for the story within the Qur'an of Christ's survival on the cross and later life, first found in one of the former works. I've always held that this inclusion within the Qur'an throws no credit on its compilers and provides sufficient evidence by itself for its man-made roots.