Spencer would suggest they might be addressed to a number of Muhammeds, not necessarily th Muhammed known today. Not sure it matters, whether he’s a historical individual, likely, or an an after the fact composite a century later, jihad is still an imperative.
The details about his four wives in the Hadith does sound real, though. If you want to create a composite legend about a prophet of unblemished righteousness, you don’t have him go around shtupping nine-year-olds or marrying six-year-olds and then waiting three years to shtupp them. With a sex life like that, he’d have to be as real as Jerry Lee Lewis.
Great picture of that in one of the art shops on Jaffe Street, btw. Mad Mo has got his tongue in this pre-pubescent pauper girl’s ear, and she’s looking out at the world with a hopeless, resigned look in her eyes. I’m amazed that the Arabs haven’t rioted over it. I scribbled a poem about it in my notebook somewhere.