Popular European literature of the time portrayed Muhammad as though he were worshipped by Muslims, similar to an idol or a heathen god. They interpreted the biography through a Christian religious filter, one that viewed Muhammad as a person who seduced the Saracens into his submission under religious guise. A few learned circles of Middle Ages Europe – primarily Latin-literate scholars – had access to fairly extensive biographical material about Muhammad. Īccording to Hossein Nasr, the earliest European literature often refers to Muhammad unfavorably.
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During the 13th century a series of works by European scholars such as Pedro Pascual, Ricoldo de Monte Croce, and Ramon Llull depicted Muhammad as an Antichrist and argued that Islam was a Christian heresy.
Main articles: Medieval Christian views on Muhammad and Muhammad and the Bible § Christian interpretationĭuring the 12th century Peter the Venerable, who saw Muhammad as the precursor to the Anti-Christ and the successor of Arius, ordered the translation of the Qur'an into Latin ( Lex Mahumet pseudoprophete) and the collection of information on Muhammad so that Islamic teachings could be refuted by Christian scholars. These references played a principal role in introducing Muhammad and his religion to the West as the false prophet, Saracen prince or deity, the Biblical beast, a schismatic from Christianity and a satanic creature, and the Antichrist. These stereotypes are born in the East but adopted by or developed in Western cultures. Many sources mentioned exaggerated and sometimes wrong stereotypes. Since the 7th century, Muhammad and his name have been connected to several stereotypes. įrom the 9th century onwards, highly negative biographies of Muhammad were written in Latin, such as the one by Álvaro of Córdoba proclaiming him the Antichrist. The phoneme h and the gemination of m do not exist in Greek so it has disappeared from John's uses.
Some demonstrate that Muhammad was pointed out in this manuscript as "Mamed", but this study was corrected by Ahlam Sbaihat who affirmed that it is the form ΜΩΑΜΕθ (Moameth) which is mentioned in this manuscript. In this manuscript, the Syrian priest represents Muhammad as a "false prophet," and an " Antichrist". Īmong the first sources representing Muhammad is the polemical work "Concerning Heresy" (Perì hairéseōn) of John of Damascus, translated from Greek into Latin. John claimed that an Arian monk (whom he did not know was Bahira) influenced Muhammad and the writer viewed the Islamic doctrines as nothing more than a hodgepodge culled from the Bible. The second chapter of his book, The Fount of Wisdom, titled "Concerning Heresies", presents a series of discussions between Christians and Muslims. 676–749 AD), who was familiar with Islam and Arabic. One Christian who came under the early dominion of the Islamic Caliphate was John of Damascus (c.
In early Christian criticism, it was claimed that Bahira was a heretical monk whose errant views inspired the Qur'an. Muhammed and the Monk Sergius (Bahira), 1508, by Dutch artist Lucas van Leyden. Muhammad has also been accused of sadism and cruelty in the treatment of his enemies, including in the invasion of the Banu Qurayza tribe in Medina. Modern criticism has concerned Muhammad's sincerity as a prophet, his morality, his marriages, his ownership of slaves and his psychological condition. Some of them, like Thomas Aquinas, criticized Muhammad's handling of doctrinal matters and his promises of carnal pleasure in the afterlife. ĭuring the Middle Ages, various Western and Byzantine Christian thinkers considered Muhammad to be a perverted, deplorable man, a false prophet, and even the Antichrist, as he was frequently seen in Christendom as a heretic or possessed by demons. For these reasons, medieval Jewish writers commonly referred to him by the derogatory nickname ha-Meshuggah ( Hebrew: מְשֻׁגָּע, "the Madman" or "the Possessed"). Ĭriticism of Muhammad has existed since the 7th century AD, when Muhammad was decried by his Non-Muslim Arab contemporaries for preaching monotheism, and by the Jewish tribes of Arabia for what they claimed were unwarranted appropriation of Biblical narratives and figures and vituperation of the Jewish faith. Here, William Blake's illustration of Inferno depicts Muhammad pulling his chest open which has been sliced by a demon to symbolize his role as a "schismatic", since Islam was considered a heresy by Medieval Christians. Dante's Inferno casts Muhammad in Hell, reflecting his negative image in the Christian world.