I guess you all know this article by Hoyland from 2017 about the critique of his book In God´s Path, but here it is, anyway. A quote from the article:
"Although it is by now something of a ritual, it is necessary to highlight, for newcomers
at least, the paucity of documentation coming from within the community of the prophet
Muhammad in the first sixty years after his death in 632 CE, which makes it difficult to say
anything concrete about this community’s self-definition. It is not just that documents are
few, but also they are not really of the right sort (mostly they are army requisition notes, tax
demands, prayers and coin legends) to yield information on this topic.3
Inevitably this has led
to a proliferation of theories about what was going on. It is crucial to bear in mind, though,
that all are to some extent speculative—notwithstanding their purveyors’ often assiduous
protestations to the contrary—and the scraps of evidence that are deployed to underpin
them are open to different interpretations. For example, the most striking thing in the eyes
of many is that Muhammad is not mentioned on any media until the 680s, but conclusions
from that vary from the non-existence of Muhammad (Yehuda Nevo) to the ecumenical
nature of early Islam (Fred Donner).4
We do of course have voluminous accounts from Muslim authors of the ninth century
telling us exactly what Muhammad and his companions said and did throughout their lives,
but since these also serve as legal and moral proof texts there is good reason to be critical
of their worth as historical texts."
I am new in this stuff, but it is so hard for me to understand why there is so little Islamic/ Arab sources from the 7th and 8th century. The Arabs was already in the first half of the 7th century a large and powerful movement/ nation that they obviously would have the means to write things down. Why didn't they ?
http://islamichistorycommons.org/mem/wp-content/uploads/sites/55/2017/11/UW-25-Hoyland.pdf
Topic: Qur'anic studies today