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Medieval Christian view of Muhammadedit this page

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of
Muhammad

Prophet of Islam.
Names and
appellations in the
Qur'an · Sources
for Muhammad's
life · Background ·
Life · Legacy ·
Traditional views ·
Life
Companions ·
Family tree · In
Mecca · In
Medina · Conquest
of 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,
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
and
Scholars: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 -
 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
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 pejorative
phrase "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 the
11th 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 in
several 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 Islam
was 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
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, or
founder 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 he
knew 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
'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
↑ 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. Oxford

University 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 neither
a 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.
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. Oxford

University 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:‫النظرة المسيحية عن‬
‫محمد في العصور الوسطى‬

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