The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—and How It Died

by Philip Jenkins

As it stands, the story of monkish borrowing is pure legend, and ignores the complexity of the Quran: it would be absurd to treat Islam as merely a bastardized offshoot of Christianity or Judaism. But just as certainly, Islam arose in dialogue with those other faiths.