ABSTRACT
This raises the question of where we should be focusing our attention. The Muslim traditional literature directs our gaze to the Ḥijāz, while our evidence for monotheism largely pertains to regions outside the Ḥijāz, and what we have that does appear to concern the Ḥijāz is diffi cult to verify or interpret. I shall not be concerned with that issue here, paying attention only to the question of the possible religious and intellectual background for what the Qurʾān presents as a dispute about whether a messenger must be an angel.
