The Letters of Messenger of God to the Kings and the Ideas of Montgomery Watt in this Regard

Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) sent letters to the kings in order to invite them and make them aware of his prophecy. These letters were sent when messenger of God was not dominant on Peninsula. William Montgomery Watt, the famous Islam scholar in the 20th century A.C, reflecting on this historical event and accepting its originality, believed that the content of these letters and the issue of their distribution are not consistent with the wisdom of Messenger of God and they have been distorted by the historian Muslims. Considering the reputation of Montgomery Watt as an outstanding writer of biographies in the West and his scientific research related to the events of early Islam as well as the biography of the Prophet, this research is to investigate Watt’s ideas concerning these letters and to recognize their accuracy and any probable errors via taking advantage of descriptive-analytical approach. The findings of this research indicate that Watt has investigated the ambiguous aspects of this event with a scientific but suspicious and intelligent view with the purpose of developing suspicion in the sources of history of Islam and verifying the Prophet’s prophecy as Arabic or local. Nonetheless, he has not found the documents required for his criticism and in some cases, he has analyzed this historical event based on his own views as well as the ideas presented by the orientalists before him.