The majority of classical scholars believe Muhammad existed as a historical figure. The earliest Muslim source of information for the life of Muhammad, the Quran, gives very little personal information and its historicity is debated. wiki.
Very Briefly; the Standard Islamic Narrative started by the Abbasids in the mid-8th Century which Muslims believe to be true, has been found to be extremely wanting in historical accuracy.
1. There is no 7th century historical or artifactual evidence for a Mohammed of Islam, he is fictional. Indeed, the likes of Muawiyah & Abdul al Malik don’t mention a Mohammed of Islam at all.
Indeed scholars have shown that the Mohammad in the Qurans are interpolations and refer to Christ!
2. There are no 7th century Qurans, of which there are around 40 variations being sold today. The Qurans didn’t even start to be written until the early 8th Century (the oldest and incomplete palimpsest is the *Sana 705-715), and were incomplete and contradict the later Qurans.
The 114 Sura Qurans didn’t appear until circa the late 8th Century or early 9th century and aren’t written in chronological order, for example sura 9 should be sura 113.
The Hafs Quran used by around 95% of Muslims today only became the standardised Quran in Cairo in 1924, then in Egypt in 1936, and became the standardised Quran for the World in 1985 when the Saudis followed suit.
So, the Quran has only been standardised World Wide since 1985.
The reason they had to choose one Quran was because in the Islamic exams they were getting different answers to the same question, as the schools were using different Qurans. BTW the Hafs Quran is far from the best Quran.
3. As regarding Mecca in Arabia, there is no archaeological or historical evidence for a Mecca in the Hijaz of Arabia in the 7th Century, indeed it is on no map until 900 AD.
The earliest reference to a Mecca is in 741 AD, and that is in what we now call Southern Turkey.
Basically, the Mecca in the Hijaz of Arabia was a dustbowl and at best a hamlet, and certainly not on any trade route as some Muslims will claim.
4. The Rightly Guided Caliphs; like Mohammed there is no historical or artifactual basis for the Muslim Caliphs in Arabia in the 7th Century.
The rightly Caliphs of the Fictional Prophet Mohammad myth, is destroyed by that fact that Muawiya was a Trinitarian Christian and Abdul al Malik was an anti Trinitarian Christian.
5. Regarding what happened at Batley Grammar school. There is nothing in the Qurans that forbids images, indeed images of the Fictional Mohammed were often done in early Islam.
Professor Fred Donner points out (he is one of many); that we have no documents whatsoever from Mohammed, or from any of his other companions, and that Muslim accounts are written much later, a couple of hundred years later and don’t match up historically.
Professor Dr R Kerr Islam didn’t start until 750, and it was a political ideology started by the Abbasids and the Qurans was originally a Christian book bastardised by the Abbasid rulers to suit their political agenda!
The Term Mohammad (Praised One) in the Qurans are likely interpolations, and only used Four times! And probably refers to Christ!
Professor Ohlig states that the term Mohammad (MHMD) was used by Arab Christians until 750
The Dome of the Rock which was built by Abdul al Malik (who was an anti-Trinitarian Christian) was originally a Christian Church as the inner ambulatory’s confirm, they are the only original part of the Dome of the Rock remaining.