"Islam: The Untold Story," by Tom Holland

While Muslims generally accept the stories contained in sources that come centuries after Muhammad's death (e.g. Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, etc.), scholars are more critical. Most scholars tend to apply historical principles to the earliest Muslim sources, attempting to sift through weaker material in order to arrive at true claims about Muhammad. However, a growing number of historians are becoming far more skeptical, claiming that we know little or nothing about Muhammad.

In "Islam: The Untold Story," historian Tom Holland presents what we might call the "Skeptical Thesis." He rejects almost all of the standard Islamic account of Muhammad's life, concluding that stories about Islam's prophet were manufactured for a purpose other than accurate history.