Prophet Muhamad

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Medieval Christian view of Muhammadedit this page

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Part of the series

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of 

Muhammad 

Prophet of Islam.

Names and

appellations in theQur'an · Sources

for Muhammad's

life · Background ·

Life · Legacy ·

 Traditional views ·

Life

Companions ·

Family tree · In

Mecca · In

Medina · Conquestof Mecca · The

Farewell Sermon ·

Succession 

Career

Diplomacy ·

Family · Wives ·

Military leadership 

Succession

Farewell

Pilgrimage · Pen

and paper ·

Saqifah · General

bay'ah 

Interactions with

Slaves · Jews ·

Christians 

Perspectives,

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Opinions &

Controverses

Muslim (Poetic 

and Mawlid) ·

Medieval

Christian ·Historicity ·

Criticism ·

Depictions -

Mohammad critics 

- Miracles of 

Muhammad -

Muhammad's

plagiarism 

-Muhammad and

the violation of the Qur'an -

Mariyah,

Muhammad's

concubine -

Qur'an, Hadith

and

Scholars:Wives

and Concubines of 

Muhammad -

Qur'an, Hadith

andScholars:Muhamm

ad - A Brief 

Analysis of 

Muhammad’s

Farewell Sermon -

 Judaism's view of 

Muhammad 

related

Death of 

Muhammad -Circumstances

surrounding

Muhammad's

death - Relics of 

Muhammad-Wives

of Muhammad -

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Muhammad and

slavery -

Mohammed 

-Muhammad and

 Jews 

Article discussion

During the Middle Ages, the Christian world held a largely antagonistic view of 

Muhammad. This partly represented lack of knowledge about the Muslim prophet,

but also stemmed from the claim that Islam had adopted an aggressive and violent

approach to expanding its influence. Consequently, Christianity and Islam were

secular and religious enemies throughout much of this era.

Contents

[show]

1 Overview 1.1 Early Middle

Ages

1.2 Middle Ages

2 See also

3 Notes

4 References 

4.1 Encyclopedias

edit Overview

File:Mohameddemons2.jpg 

Renaissance fresco in San Petronio Basilica, depicting Mohammed being tortured in

Hell.

In contrast to the Islamic views of Muhammad, the Christian image stayed highly

negative for over a millennium. [1] [2] [3] 

[edit] Early Middle Ages

 The earliest (documented) Christian knowledge of Muhammad stems from

Byzantine sources, written shortly after Muhammad's death in 632. In the Doctrina

 Jacobi nuper baptizati, a dialogue between a recent Christian convert and several

 Jews, one participant writes that his brother "wrote to [him] saying that a deceiving

prophet has appeared amidst the Saracens". Another participant in the Doctrina

replies about Muhammad: "He is deceiving. For do prophets come with sword and

chariot?, ...[Y]ou will discover nothing true from the said prophet except human

bloodshed".[4] Though Muhammad is never called by his name, there seems to

have been knowledge of his existence. It also appears that both Jews and Christians

viewed him in a negative light.[5] Other contemporary sources, such as the writings

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of the Patriarch Sophronius, show there was no knowledge of the Arabs having their

own prophet or faith, and only remark that the (Muslim) Arab attacks must be a

punishment for Christian sins.[6] 

Knowledge of Muhammad was available in Christendom from the time of the

translation of a polemical work by John of Damascus, who coined the pejorativephrase "false prophet".[7] and "was nearly always used abusively." [1] Another

influential source was the Epistolae Saraceni or the “Letters of a Saracen” written

by an Oriental Christian and translated into Latin from Arabic.[1] From the 9th

century onwards, highly negative biographies of Muhammad were written in Latin,

[1] such as the one by Alvarus of Cordoba proclaiming him the Anti-Christ.[8] 

[edit] Middle Ages

 The addition to Byzantine sources such as Eulogius of Cordova from the 9th

century, Christendom also gained some knowledge of Muhammad through the

Mozarabs of Spain such as Petrus Alfonsi, a Jew who converted to Christianity, in the11th century.[1] Later during the 12th century Peter the Venerable, who saw

Muhammad as the precursor to the Anti-Christ and the successor of Arius,[8] 

ordered the translation of the Qur'an into Latin and the collection of information on

Muhammad so that Islamic teachings could be refuted by Christian scholars.[1] 

During the 13th century European biographers completed their work on the life of 

Muhammad in a series of works by scholars such as Pedro Pascual, Ricoldo de

Monte Croce, and Ramon Llull [1] in which Muhammad was depicted as an Antichrist 

while Islam was shown to be a Christian heresy[1] Facts such as the Muslim belief 

that he was unlettered, that he married a wealthy widow, that in his later life he had

several wives, that he ruled over a human community and was therefore involved inseveral wars, and that he died like an ordinary person in contrast to the Christian

belief in the supernatural end of Christ's earthly life were all interpreted in the worst

possible light.[1] 

Medieval scholars and churchmen held that Islam was the work of Muhammad who

in turn was inspired by Satan. Muhammad was frequently calumnized and made a

subject of legends taught by preachers as fact.[9] For example, in order to show

that Muhammad was the anti-Christ, it was asserted that Muhammad died not in the

year 632 but in the year 666 - the number of the beast - in another variation on the

theme the number "666" was also used to represent the period of time Muslims

would hold sway of the land.[8] A verbal expression of Christian contempt for Islamwas expressed in turning his name from Muhammad to Mahound, the "devil

incarnate".[10] Others usually confirmed to pious Christians that Muhammad had

come to a bad end.[9] According to one version after falling into a drunken stupor

he had been eaten by a herd of swine, and this was ascribed as the reason why

Muslims proscribed consumption of alcohol and pork.[9] Leggenda di Maometto is

an example of those in which he is taught from childhood the black arts by a

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heretical Christian villain who escaped imprisonment by the Church to Arabia and

set up a false religion by selectively choosing and perverting text from the Bible and

the Old Testament to set up Islam. It also ascribed the Muslim holiday of Friday

"dies veneris" (day of Venus) vs. the Jewish (Saturday) and the Christian (Sunday),

to his followers depravity as reflected in their multiplicity of wives.[9] A highly

negative depiction of Muhammad as a heretic, false prophet, renegade cardinal, orfounder of a violent religion also found its way into many other works of European

literature, such as the chansons de geste, William Langland's Piers Plowman, and

 John Lydgate's The Fall of the Princes.[1] 

During the Middle Ages, especially in places where there was frequent Christian-

Muslim conflict, it was popular to depict Muhammad being tortured by the demons

in Hell. One such example is in Dante's The Divine Comedy in which Muhammad is

in the ninth ditch of the eighth circle of hell, the realm for those who have caused

schism; specifically, he was placed among the Sowers of Religious Discord. One

common allegation laid against Muhammad was that he was an impostor who, in

order to satisfy his ambition and his lust, propagated religious teachings that heknew to be false.[11] 

A more positive interpretation appears in the 13th century Estoire del Saint Grail,

the first book in the vast Arthurian cycle, the Lancelot-Grail. In describing the

travels of  Joseph of Arimathea, keeper of the Holy Grail, the author says that most

residents of the Middle East were pagans until the coming of Muhammad, who is

shown as a true prophet sent by God to bring Christianity to the region. This mission

however failed when Muhammad's pride caused him to alter God's wishes, thereby

deceiving his followers. Nevertheless, Muhammad's religion is portrayed as being

greatly superior to paganism.[12] 

 The depiction of Islam in the Travels of Sir John Mandeville is also relatively positive,

though with many inaccurate and mythical features. It is said that Muslims are

easily converted to Christianity because their beliefs are already so similar in many

ways, and that they believe that only the Christian revelation will last till the end of 

the world. The moral behaviour of Muslims at the time is shown as superior to that

of Christians, and as a standing reproach to Christian society. [13] 

Other Romantic depictions of Muhammad also began to appear from the 13th

century onward, such as in Alexandre du Pont's Roman de Mahom, the translation

of the Mi'raj, the Escala de Mahoma (“The Ladder of Muhammad”) by the court

physician of Alfonso X of Castile and Leon and his son.[1] 

Some Christians also believed Muslims worshipped Muhammad giving rise to the

term Mohammedan, while others simply believed he was a Christian heretic.[8] Still

others in medieval European literature often referred to Muslims as "pagans", or by

sobriquets such as the paynim foe. These depictions such as those in the Song of 

Roland represent Muslims worshiping Muhammad (spelt e.g. 'Mahom' and

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'Mahumet') as a god, and depict them worshiping various deities in the form of 

"idols", ranging from Apollo to Lucifer, but ascribing to them a chief deity known as

" Termagant".[14] Conversely, actual pagans, however long they antedate the birth

of Muhammad, are shown as worshipping the same array of gods and as identical to

Muslims in every respect.[15] 

When the Knights Templar were being tried for heresy reference was often made to

their worship of a demon Baphomet, which was notable by implication for its

similarity to the common rendition of Muhammad's name used by Christian writers

of the time, Mahomet. All these and other variations on the theme were all set in

the "temper of the times" of what was seen as a Muslim-Christian conflict as

Medieval Europe was building a concept of "the great enemy" in the wake of the

quickfire success of the Muslims through a series of conquests shortly after the fall

of the Western Roman Empire, as well as the lack of real information in the West of 

the mysterious east.[11] 

edit See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Medieval depictions

of Muhammad 

Orientalism 

Mohammedan 

 Termagant 

Mahound 

Saracen 

Christianity and Islam 

Islamic view of Jesus 

edit Notes

↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 "Muhammad."

Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 10 Jan. 2007, [1].

↑ Esposito (1998) p.14↑ Watt (1974) p.231

↑ Walter Emil Kaegi, Jr., "Initial Byzantine Reactions to the Arab Conquest", Church

History, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Jun., 1969), p. 139-149, p. 139-142, quoting from Doctrina

 Jacobi nuper baptizati 86-87

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↑ Walter Emil Kaegi, Jr., "Initial Byzantine Reactions to the Arab Conquest", Church

History, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Jun., 1969), p. 139-149, p. 139-142

↑ Walter Emil Kaegi, Jr., "Initial Byzantine Reactions to the Arab Conquest", Church

History, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Jun., 1969), p. 139-149, p. 139-141,

↑ Source: "The Fountain of Wisdom" (pege gnoseos), part II: "Concerning Heresy"(peri aipeseon)

↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Kenneth Meyer Setton (July 1, 1992). "Western Hostility to Islam

and Prophecies of Turkish Doom". DIANE Publishing. ISBN 0-87169-201-5. pg 4-15

↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Kenneth Meyer Setton (July 1, 1992). "Western Hostility to Islam

and Prophecies of Turkish Doom". DIANE Publishing. ISBN 0-87169-201-5. pg 1-5

↑ Reeves (2003), p.3

↑ 11.0 11.1 Watt, Montgomery, Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. OxfordUniversity Press, 1961. From p. 229.

↑ Lacy, Norris J. (Ed.) (December 1, 1992). Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian

Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation, Volume 1 of 5. New York: Garland. ISBN 0-

8240-7733-4.

↑  The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, CHAPTER XV.

↑ Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, " Termagant

↑ The definition of "Saracen" in Raymond de Peñafort's Summa de Poenitentia

starts by describing the Muslims but ends by including every person who is neithera Christian nor a Jew.

edit References

Ernst, Carl (2004). Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary

World. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-5577-4.

Esposito, John (1998). Islam: The Straight Path. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-

511233-4.

Esposito, John (1999). The Islamic Threat: Myth Or Reality?. Oxford University Press.

ISBN 0-19-513076-6.

Reeves, Minou (2003). Muhammad in Europe: A Thousand Years of Western Myth-

Making. NYU Press. ISBN 978-0814775646.

Schimmel, Annemarie (1992). Islam: An Introduction. SUNY Press. ISBN 0-7914-

1327-6.

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Schimmel, Annemarie (1995). Mystische Dimensionen des Islam. Insel, Frankfurt.

ISBN 3458334157.

Watt, W. Montgomery (1961). Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford

University Press. ISBN 0-19-881078-4.

Watt, W. Montgomery (1974). Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. OxfordUniversity Press. ISBN 0-19-881078-4. New Edition.

William Montgomery Watt, Muslim-Christian Encounters. Perceptions and

Misperceptions 

[edit] Encyclopedias

F. Buhl (A.T. Welch), Annemarie Schimmel, A. Noth, Trude Ehlert, ed. "Various

articles". Encyclopedia of Islam Online. Brill Academic Publishers. ISSN 1573-3912.

"Various articles". The New Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica,Incorporated; Rev Ed edition. 2005. ISBN 978-1593392369. ar:نع ةيحيسملا رظلا

 حمد ف الصو الوطى

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