Karl-Heinz Ohlig (15 September 1938 – 14 January 2024) was a German professor of

Religious Studies Religious studies, also known as religiology or the study of religion, is the study of religion from a historical or scientific perspective. There is no consensus on what qualifies as ''religion'' and definition of religion, its definition is h ...

and the History of Christianity at the

University of Saarland Saarland University (, ) is a public research university located in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of Saarland. It was founded in 1948 in Homburg in co-operation with France and is organized in six faculties that cover all major f ...

, Germany.

Life and career

Ohlig was the co-editor with Gerd Rudiger Puin of the book ''Die dunklen Anfänge. Neue Forschungen zur Entstehung und frühen Geschichte des Islam'' ''The Hidden Origins of Islam: New Research Into Its Early History''" (Hans Schiller Verlag, 2005/Prometheus Books 2008) which argues that

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

was not originally conceived as a distinct religion. Ohlig and Puin's thesis propounds that according to the evidence of Arab coinage, and the inscription in the

Dome of the Rock The Dome of the Rock () is an Islamic shrine at the center of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the Temple Mount in the Old City (Jerusalem), Old City of Jerusalem. It is the world's oldest surviving work of Islamic architecture, the List_of_the_ol ...

in the late 7th century, with the letters MHMT and the term ''

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

'' meaning "the revered" or "the praiseworthy" and the Dome's bearing Christian symbols such as crosses, it suggests that the term Muhammad was a Christian honorific title referring to Jesus, as in the hymn of the mass ("praise be to he that comes...") With his approach of research Ohlig was a representative of the "Saarbrücken School" which is part of the Revisionist School of Islamic Studies. Ohlig died on 14 January 2024, at the age of 85.Karl-Heinz Ohlig

Works

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Life and career

Works

References

See also