'A Summary of Wansbrough's Theories and Their Implications'. Berg summarizes the implications of Wansbrough's Quranic Studies (1997) as follows:
Neither the Koran nor Islam is a product of Muhammad or even Arabia. During the early Arab expansion beyond Arabia, there is no evidence that the conquerors were Muslim. Almost 200 years later 'early' Muslim literature began to be written by the Mesopotamian clerical elite. The implication may be that the hitherto secular polity discovered and adopted a new movement which, though a non-Jewish, non-Christian movement, was a product of a Judaeo-Christian sectarian milieu. This movement and its history were soon Arabicized. The Koran, however, took somewhat longer to be canonized - not until circa 800 CE. (495)