View source for Medieval Christian views on Muhammad

{{short description|Overview of the Medieval Christian views on Muhammad}}{{Muhammad}}

In contrast to the views of [[Muhammad in Islam]], the Christian views on him stayed highly negative during the [[Middle Ages]] for over a millennium.<ref name="Britannica">"Muhammad." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 10 January 2007, [http://search.eb.com/eb/article-251806 eb.com article].</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Esposito, John|url=https://archive.org/details/islamstraightpat00espo_0|title=Islam: The Straight Path|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1998|isbn=0-19-511233-4|author-link=John Esposito}} p.14</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Watt, W. Montgomery|url=https://archive.org/details/muhammadprophets00watt|title=Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1974|isbn=0-19-881078-4|author-link=William Montgomery Watt}} New Edition, p.231</ref> At this time, [[Christendom]] largely viewed [[Islam]] as a [[Heresy in Christianity|Christian heresy]] and [[Muhammad]] as a [[False prophet#Christianity|false prophet]].<ref name="Buhl1993">{{Cite encyclopedia |last1=Buhl |first1=F. |last2=Ehlert |first2=Trude |last3=Noth |first3=A. |last4=Schimmel |first4=Annemarie |last5=Welch |first5=A. T. |title=Muḥammad |orig-year=1993 |year=2012 |editor1-last=Bearman |editor1-first=P. J. |editor1-link=Peri Bearman |editor2-last=Bianquis |editor2-first=Th. |editor2-link=Thierry Bianquis |editor3-last=Bosworth |editor3-first=C. E. |editor3-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor4-last=van Donzel |editor4-first=E. J. |editor4-link=Emeri Johannes van Donzel |editor5-last=Heinrichs |editor5-first=W. P. |editor5-link=Wolfhart Heinrichs |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam#2nd edition, EI2|Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition]] |volume=7 |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |pages=360–376 |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0780 |isbn=978-90-04-16121-4}}</ref><ref name="Quinn2008">{{cite book |last=Quinn |first=Frederick |date=2008 |title=The Sum of All Heresies: The Image of Islam in Western Thought |location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |chapter=The Prophet as Antichrist and Arab Lucifer (Early Times to 1600) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PAF5py-2Oi0C&pg=PA17 |pages=17–54 |isbn=978-0195325638}}</ref><ref name="Goddard2000">{{cite book |last=Goddard |first=Hugh |date=2000 |title=A History of Christian-Muslim Relations |location=[[Edinburgh]] |publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |chapter=The First Age of Christian-Muslim Interaction (c. 830/215) |pages=34–49 |isbn=978-1-56663-340-6}}</ref><ref name="Curtis2009">{{Cquote|Criticism by Christians [...] was voiced soon after the advent of Islam starting with [[St. John of Damascus]] in the late seventh century, who wrote of "the [[False prophet#Christianity|false prophet]]", Muhammad. Rivalry, and often enmity, continued between the [[Christendom|European Christian world]] and the [[Muslim world#History|Islamic world]] [...]. For [[Christian theology|Christian theologians]], the "Other" was the infidel, the Muslim. [...] Theological disputes in [[Baghdad]] and [[Damascus]], in the eighth to the tenth century, and in [[Andalusia]] up to the fourteenth century led [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Christian Orthodox]] and [[Church in the Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] theologians and [[Byzantine emperor|rulers]] to continue seeing Islam as a threat. In the twelfth century, [[Peter the Venerable]] [...] who had the [[Quran|Koran]] translated into [[Latin language|Latin]], regarded Islam as a Christian heresy and Muhammad as a sexually self-indulgent and a murderer. [...] However, he called for the [[Conversion to Christianity|conversion]], not the extermination, of Muslims. A century later, [[St. Thomas Aquinas]] in ''[[Summa contra Gentiles]]'' accused Muhammad of seducing people by promises of carnal pleasure, uttering truths mingled with many fables and announcing utterly false decisions that had no divine inspiration. Those who followed Muhammad were regarded by Aquinas as brutal, ignorant "beast-like men" and desert wanderers. Through them Muhammad, who asserted he was "sent in the power of arms", forced others to become followers by violence and armed power.|author=Michael Curtis|source=''[https://books.google.com/books?id=liJ_KxAMIJgC&pg=PA31 Orientalism and Islam: European Thinkers on Oriental Despotism in the Middle East and India]'' (2009), p. 31, [[Cambridge University Press]], [[New York City|New York]], {{ISBN|978-0521767255}}.}}</ref><ref name="Hartmann 2013">{{cite book |author-last=Hartmann |author-first=Heiko |year=2013 |chapter=Wolfram’s Islam: The Beliefs of the Muslim Pagans in ''Parzival'' and ''Willehalm'' |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=snPnBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA427 |editor-last=Classen |editor-first=Albrecht |title=East Meets West in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: Transcultural Experiences in the Premodern World |location=[[Berlin]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[De Gruyter]] |series=Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture |volume=14 |pages=427–442 |doi=10.1515/9783110321517.427 |isbn=9783110328783 |issn=1864-3396}}</ref> 

== Overview ==
{{Main|Criticism of Muhammad#Christian criticism|Muhammad and the Bible#Christian interpretation}}Various [[Christianity in the Middle Ages|Western]] and [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] [[Christian theology|Christian thinkers]]<ref name="Quinn2008" /><ref name="Goddard2000" /><ref name="Curtis2009" /><ref name="John of Damascus">[[John of Damascus]], ''De Haeresibus''. See [[Migne]], ''[[Patrologia Graeca]]'', Vol. 94, 1864, cols 763–73. An English translation by the Reverend John W. Voorhis appeared in ''The Moslem World'', October 1954, pp. 392–98.</ref> considered Muhammad to be a [[Perversion|perverted]],<ref name="Quinn2008" /><ref name="Curtis2009" /> deplorable man,<ref name="Quinn2008" /><ref name="Curtis2009" /> a false prophet,<ref name="Quinn2008" /><ref name="Goddard2000" /><ref name="Curtis2009" /><ref name="Hartmann 2013" /> and even the [[Antichrist]],<ref name="Quinn2008" /><ref name="Goddard2000" /> as he was frequently seen in Christendom as a heretic or [[Demonic possession|possessed]] by [[Demon#Christianity|demons]].<ref name="Buhl1993" /><ref name="Quinn2008" /><ref name="Goddard2000" /><ref name="Curtis2009" /><ref name="Hartmann 2013" /> Some of them, like [[Thomas Aquinas]], criticized Muhammad's promises of carnal pleasure in the [[Afterlife#Islam|afterlife]].<ref name="Curtis2009" />

With the [[Crusades]] of the [[High Middle Ages]], and the wars against the [[Ottoman Empire]] during the [[Late Middle Ages]], the Christian reception of Muhammad became more [[Criticism of Muhammad|polemical]], moving from the classification as a heretic to depiction of Muhammad as a servant of [[Satan]] or as the [[Antichrist]], who will be eternally suffering tortures in [[Christian views on hell|Hell]] amongst the [[Damnation#Christianity|damned]].<ref name="Hartmann 2013" /> By the Late Middle Ages, Islam was more typically grouped with [[Paganism]], and Muhammad was viewed as an [[Idolatry|idolater]] inspired by the [[Devil in Christianity|Devil]].<ref name="Hartmann 2013" /> A more relaxed or benign view of Islam only developed in the [[modern period]], after the Islamic empires ceased to be an acute military threat to Europe (see [[Orientalism]]).

== Early Middle Ages ==
The earliest written Christian knowledge of Muhammad stems from [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] sources, written shortly after Muhammad's death in 632 CE. In the anti-Jewish polemic the ''[[Teaching of Jacob]]'', a dialogue between a recent [[Conversion to Christianity|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".<ref>Walter Emil Kaegi, Jr., "Initial Byzantine Reactions to the Arab Conquest", ''[[Church History (journal)|Church History]]'', Vol. 38, No. 2 (June, 1969), p. 139–149, p. 139–142, quoting from ''Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati'' 86–87</ref> Though Muhammad is never called by his name,<ref>''Mahomet'', among other [[Anglicisation|anglicized]] forms (such as [[Mahound]]), were popular for rendering of the Arabic name Muhammad, borne by the founder of the religion of Islam (died 633). In literary use now superseded by the more correct form Mohammed.</ref> the author seems to know of his existence and represents both Jews and Christians as viewing him in a negative light.<ref>Kaegi p. 139–149, p. 139–142</ref> Other contemporary sources, such as the writings of [[Sophronius of Jerusalem]], do not characterize Saracens as having their own prophet or faith, only remarking that the Saracen attacks must be a punishment for Christian [[sin]]s.<ref>Kaegi p. 139–149, p. 139–141,</ref>

[[Sebeos]], a 7th-century [[Armenians|Armenian]] [[bishop]] and [[historian]], wrote shortly after the end of the [[First Fitna|first Arab civil war]] concerning Muhammad and his [[Farewell Sermon]]:
{{quote|I shall discuss the line of the son of Abraham: not the one born of a [[Sarah|free woman]], but the one born of a [[Hagar|serving maid]], about whom the quotation from Scripture was fully and truthfully fulfilled: "His hands will be at everyone, and everyone will have their hands at him."<ref>''KJV Bible'' {{bibleverse||Genesis|16:10–12|KJV}}</ref><ref>''KJV Bible'' {{bibleverse||Genesis|17:20|KJV}}</ref>... In that period a certain one of them, a man of the sons of [[Ishmael]] named [[Muhammad]], a merchant, became prominent. A sermon about the Way of Truth, supposedly at God's command, was revealed to them, and [Muhammad] taught them to recognize the God of Abraham, especially since he was informed and knowledgeable about [[Moses in Islam|Mosaic history]]. Because the command had come from On High, he ordered them all to assemble together and to unite in faith. Abandoning the reverence of vain things, they turned toward the living God, who had appeared to their father, Abraham. Muhammad legislated that they were not to eat carrion, not to drink wine, not to speak falsehoods, and not to commit adultery. He said: "God promised that country to Abraham and to his son after him, for eternity. And what had been promised was fulfilled during that time when [God] loved Israel. Now, however, you are the sons of Abraham, and God shall fulfill the promise made to Abraham and his son on you. Only love the God of Abraham, and go and take the country which God gave to your father, Abraham. No one can successfully resist you in war, since God is with you.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bedrosian|first=Robert|title=Sebeos' History|year=1985|location=New York|pages=Chapter 30}}</ref>}} 

Knowledge of Muhammad in Medieval Christendom became available after the [[Early Muslim conquests|early expansion of the Islamic religion]] in the [[Middle East]] and [[North Africa]].<ref>[[Henry Stubbe]] ''An account of the rise and progress of Mahometanism'' Pg [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.209205/page/n238 211]</ref><ref>''The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought''. Edited by Adrian Hastings, Alistair Mason, Hugh Pyper. Pg 330.</ref> In the 8th century [[John of Damascus]], a [[Syria (region)|Syrian]] [[Christian monasticism#Eastern Orthodox tradition|monk]], [[Christian theology|Christian theologian]], and [[Christian apologetics|apologist]] that lived under the [[Umayyad Caliphate]], reported in his heresiological treatise ''[[John of Damascus#List of works|De Haeresibus]]'' ("Concerning Heresy") the [[Islamic views on Jesus' death|Islamic denial of Jesus' crucifixion]] and his alleged substitution on the cross, attributing the origin of these doctrines to Muhammad himself:<ref name="Robinson 1991">{{cite book |last=Robinson |first=Neal |year=1991 |chapter=The Crucifixion - Non-Muslim Approaches |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ht1hpisBQF0C&pg=PA106 |title=Christ in Islam and Christianity: The Representation of Jesus in the Qur'an and the Classical Muslim Commentaries |location=[[Albany, New York]] |publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |pages=106–140 |isbn=978-0-7914-0558-1 |s2cid=169122179}}</ref>{{rp|106–107}}<ref name="Schadler 2017">{{cite book |last=Schadler |first=Peter |year=2017 |title=John of Damascus and Islam: Christian Heresiology and the Intellectual Background to Earliest Christian-Muslim Relations |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6NBCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97 |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |series=The History of Christian-Muslim Relations |volume=34 |pages=97–140 |doi=10.1163/9789004356054 |isbn=978-90-04-34965-0 |lccn=2017044207 |s2cid=165610770}}</ref>{{rp|115–116}}
{{quote|And the Jews, having themselves violated the Law, wanted to crucify him, but having arrested him they crucified his shadow. But Christ, it is said, was not crucified, nor did he die; for God took him up to himself because of his love for him. And he [Muhammad] says this, that when Christ went up to heaven God questioned him saying "O Jesus, did you say that 'I am Son of God, and God'?" And Jesus, they say, answered: "Be merciful to me, Lord; you know that I did not say so, nor will I boast that I am your servant; but men who have gone astray wrote that I said this and they said lies concerning me and they have been in error". And although there are included in this scripture many more absurdities worthy of laughter, he insists that this was brought down to him by God.<ref name="Robinson 1991"/>{{rp|107}}<ref name="Schadler 2017"/>{{rp|115–116}}}}

Later, the Latin translation of ''De Haeresibus'', where he explicitly used the phrase "[[False prophet#Christianity|false prophet]]" in referring to Muhammad, became known in the Christian West.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/stjohn_islam.aspx|title = St. John of Damascus: Critique of Islam}}</ref><ref>Source: "The Fountain of Wisdom" (''pege gnoseos''), part II: "Concerning Heresy" (''peri aipeseon'')</ref> According to the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', Christian knowledge of Muhammad's life "was nearly always used abusively".<ref name="Britannica"/> Another influential source was the ''[[Epistolae Saraceni]]'' ("Letters of a Saracen") written by an Oriental Christian and translated into Latin from Arabic.<ref name="Britannica"/> From the 9th century onwards, highly negative biographies of Muhammad were written in Latin.<ref name="Britannica"/> The first two were produced in Spain, the ''[[Storia de Mahometh]]'' in the 8th or 9th century and the ''[[Tultusceptru]]'' in the 9th or 10th century. In the latter, Muhammad is presented as a young Christian monk duped by a demon into spreading a false religion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wolf |first=Kenneth Baxter |chapter=Counterhistory in the Earliest Latin Lives of Muhammad |title=The Image of the Prophet between Ideal and Ideology: A Scholarly Investigation – The Image of the Prophet Between Ideal and Ideology |editor=Christiane J. Gruber |editor2=Avinoam Shalem |pages=13–26 |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2014 |doi=10.1515/9783110312546.13|isbn=978-3-11-031238-6 }}</ref> Another Spaniard, [[Álvaro of Córdoba (Mozarab)|Álvaro of Córdoba]], proclaimed Muhammad to be the [[Antichrist]] in one of his works.<ref name="meyer2">Kenneth Meyer Setton (July 1, 1992). "[https://books.google.com/books?id=hk4LAAAAIAAJ Western Hostility to Islam and Prophecies of Turkish Doom]". Diane Publishing. {{ISBN|0-87169-201-5}}. pg 4-15</ref>  Christendom also gained some knowledge of Muhammad through the [[Mozarabs]] of Spain, such as the 9th-century [[Eulogius of Córdoba]].<ref name="Britannica"/>

== High Middle Ages ==
{{Further|Latin biographies of Muhammad}}
[[File:Dante and Virgil Meet Muhammad and His Son-in-law, Ali in Hell.jpg|thumb|upright|250px|[[Dante]]'s ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'' casts Muhammad in [[Christian views on Hell|Hell]],<ref name="Buhl1993"/><ref name="Quinn2008"/><ref name="Hartmann 2013"/><ref>''Inferno'', [https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy_(Longfellow_1867)/Volume_1/Canto_28 Canto XXVIII] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004185944/https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy_(Longfellow_1867)/Volume_1/Canto_28 |date=4 October 2018 }}, lines 22-63; translation by [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]] (1867).</ref> reflecting his negative image in the [[Western culture|Christian world]].<ref name="Quinn2008"/><ref name="Goddard2000"/><ref name="Curtis2009"/><ref name="Hartmann 2013"/> Here, [[William Blake]]'s illustration of ''Inferno'' depicts Muhammad pulling his chest open which has been sliced by a [[Demon#Christianity|demon]] to symbolize his role as a "schismatic",<ref name="Buhl1993"/><ref name="Quinn2008"/><ref name="Hartmann 2013"/> since Islam was considered a [[Heresy in Christianity|heresy]] by Medieval Christians.<ref name="Quinn2008"/><ref name="Goddard2000"/><ref name="Curtis2009"/><ref name="Hartmann 2013"/>]]
[[File:Mohammed2.jpg|thumb|upright|250px|"Mohammed and the Murdered Monk", 1508 engraving by [[Lucas van Leyden]] – an incident unattested in Islamic accounts of Muhammad's life]]

In the 11th century [[Petrus Alphonsi]], a Jew who had converted to Christianity, was another Mozarab source of information on Muhammad.<ref name="Britannica"/> Later during the 12th century [[Peter the Venerable]], who saw Muhammad as the precursor to the Antichrist and the successor of [[Arius]],<ref name="meyer2"/> ordered the translation of the [[Quran]] into Latin (''[[Lex Mahumet pseudoprophete]]'') and the collection of information on Muhammad so that Islamic teachings could be refuted by Christian scholars.<ref name="Britannica"/>

Muhammad is characterized as "''pseudo-prophet''" in Byzantine and post-Byzantine religious and historic texts, as for example by [[Niketas Choniates]] (12th-13th c.).<ref name="Mai1840">{{cite book |last=Mai |first=Angelo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R-oXAAAAYAAJ |title=Spicilegium romanum ...: Patrum ecclesiasticorum Serapionis, Ioh. Chrysostomi, Cyrilli Alex., Theodori Mopsuesteni, Procli, Diadochi, Sophronii, Ioh. Monachi, Paulini, Claudii, Petri Damiani scripta varia. Item ex Nicetae Thesauro excerpta, biographi sacri veteres, et Asclepiodoti militare fragmentum |publisher=typis Collegii urbani |year=1840 |page=304 |author-link=Angelo Mai}}</ref>

=== Medieval lives of Muhammad ===
During the 13th century, European biographers completed their work on the life of Muhammad in a series of works by scholars such as [[Peter Pascual]], [[Riccoldo da Monte di Croce]], and [[Ramon Llull]]<ref name="Britannica"/> in which Muhammad was depicted as an Antichrist while [[Islam]] was shown to be a Christian [[heresy]].<ref name="Britannica"/> The fact that Muhammad was unlettered, that he married a wealthy widow, that in his later life he had several wives, that he was involved in several wars, and that he died like an ordinary person in contrast to the Christian belief in the supernatural end of [[Jesus]]' earthly life were all arguments used to discredit Muhammad.<ref name="Britannica"/>

Medieval scholars and churchmen held that Islam was the work of Muhammad who in turn was inspired by Satan. [[Kenneth Setton]] wrote that Muhammad was frequently calumniated and made a subject of legends taught by preachers as fact.<ref name="meyer1">Kenneth Meyer Setton (July 1, 1992). "[https://books.google.com/books?id=hk4LAAAAIAAJ Western Hostility to Islam and Prophecies of Turkish Doom]". Diane Publishing. {{ISBN|0-87169-201-5}}. pg 1–5</ref> 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.<ref name="meyer2"/> A verbal expression of Christian contempt for Islam was expressed in turning his name from Muhammad to [[Mahound]], the "devil incarnate".<ref>{{cite book | author=Reeves, Minou | title=Muhammad in Europe: A Thousand Years of Western Myth-Making | year=2003 | publisher=NYU Press | isbn=978-0-8147-7564-6}}, p.3</ref> Others usually confirmed to pious Christians that Muhammad had come to a bad end.<ref name="meyer1"/> 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.<ref name="meyer1"/> In another account of the alcohol ban, Muhammad learns about the Bible from a Jew and a heretical [[Arianism|Arian]] monk. Muhammad and the monk get drunk and fall asleep. The Jew kills the monk with Muhammad's sword. He then blames Muhammad, who, believing he has committed the crime in a drunken rage, bans alcohol.<ref>Bushkovich, Paul, "Orthodoxy and Islam in Russia", Steindorff, L. (ed) ''Religion und Integration im Moskauer Russland: Konzepte und Praktiken, Potentiale und Grenzen 14.-17. Jahrhundert'', Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010, p.128.</ref>

''Leggenda di Maometto'' is another example of such a story. In this version, as a child Muhammad was taught the black arts by a heretical Christian villain who escaped imprisonment by the [[Christian Church]] by fleeing to the [[Arabian Peninsula]]; as an adult he set up a false religion by selectively choosing and perverting texts from the [[Bible]] to create Islam. It also ascribed the Muslim holiday of Friday "dies Veneris" (day of [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]]), as against the Jewish (Saturday) and the Christian (Sunday), to his followers' depravity as reflected in their multiplicity of wives.<ref name="meyer1"/> 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''.<ref name="Britannica"/>

=== The ''Golden Legend'' ===
The thirteenth century ''[[Golden Legend]]'', a best-seller in its day containing a collection of hagiographies, describes "Magumeth (Mahomet, Muhammad)" as "a false prophet and sorcerer", detailing his early life and travels as a merchant through his marriage to the widow, Khadija and goes on to suggest his "visions" came as a result of epileptic seizures and the interventions of a renegade [[Nestorianism|Nestorian]] monk named Sergius.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GNWZgIL5ZCoC&pg=PA753 |title = The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints|isbn = 978-0691154077|last1 = Voragine|first1 = Jacobus de|date = 2012-04-22}}</ref>

=== Medieval romances ===
Medieval European literature often referred to Muslims as "[[infidel]]s" or "pagans", in sobriquets such as the ''paynim foe''. In the same vein, the definition of "[[Saracen]]" in [[Raymond of Penyafort]]'s ''Summa de Poenitentia'' starts by describing the Muslims but ends by including every person who is neither a Christian nor a Jew.

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 "[[cult image|idols]]", ranging from [[Abaddon|Apollyon]] to [[Lucifer]], but ascribing to them a chief deity known as "[[Termagant]]".<ref name="meyer2" /><ref>''[[Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable]]'', "[http://www.bartleby.com/81/16352.html Termagant]</ref>

Depictions of Muhammad in the form of [[picaresque novel]]  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 León and his son.<ref name="Britannica" />

In medieval romances such as the French Arthurian cycle, pagans such as the ancient Britons or the inhabitants of "Sarras" before the conversion of King Evelake, who presumably lived well before the birth of Muhammad, are often described as worshipping the same array of gods and as identical to the imagined (Termagant-worshipping) Muslims in every respect. A more positive interpretation appears in the 13th-century ''Estoire del Saint Grail'', the first book in the vast [[Matter of Britain]], 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.<ref>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}}.</ref>

===The ''Divine Comedy''===
[[File:Mohammed_by_gustave_dore.jpg|thumb|Mohammed suffering punishment in Hell. From [[Gustave Doré]]'s illustrations of the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' (1861)]]
In ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', the first part of [[Dante Alighieri]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', Muhammad is placed in [[Malebolge]], the eighth circle of [[hell]], designed for those who have committed fraud; specifically, he is placed in the ninth ''bolgia'' (ditch) among the sowers of discord and schism. Muhammad is portrayed as split in half, with his entrails hanging out, representing his status as a [[heresiarch]] (''Inferno'' 28):
:<!-- this is the actual quotation; do not remove-->No barrel, not even one where the hoops and staves go  Every which way, was ever split open like a frayed  Sinner I saw, ripped from chin to where we fart below.
:His guts hung between his legs and displayed  His vital organs, including that wretched sack  Which converts to shit<!-- this is the actual quotation; do not remove -->  whatever gets conveyed down the gullet.
:As I stared at him he looked back  And with his hands pulled his chest open,  Saying, "See how I split open the crack in myself!  See how twisted and broken Mohammed is!  Before me walks [[Ali]], his face  Cleft from chin to crown, grief–stricken."<ref>{{cite book|author=Seth Zimmerman|title=The Inferno of Dante Alighieri |page=191 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r3hWDEjN7JcC&pg=PA191 |year=2003 |publisher=iUniverse |isbn=0-595-28090-0}}</ref>
This graphic scene is frequently shown in illustrations of the ''Divine Comedy:'' Muhammad is represented in a 15th-century [[fresco]] ''[[Last Judgment]]'' by Giovanni da Modena and drawing on Dante, in the [[San Petronio Basilica]] in [[Bologna]],<ref name="fresco">{{cite web |author=Philip Willan |date=2002-06-24 |title=Al-Qaida plot to blow up Bologna church fresco |url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,11711,742914,00.html |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> as well as in artwork by [[Salvador Dalí]], [[Auguste Rodin]], [[William Blake]], and [[Gustave Doré]].<ref name="Chronicle">{{cite web |author=Ayesha Akram |date=2006-02-11 |title=What's behind Muslim cartoon outrage |url=http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/11/MNGRCH6UQK1.DTL |work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]}}</ref>

In his depiction of Muhammad, Dante draws inspiration from medieval Christian views and misconceptions on Muhammad. As stated by historian [[Karla Mallette]], “medieval Christians viewed the historical Muḥammad as a frankly theatrical character.”<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qds84 |title=Dante and Islam |date=2015 |publisher=Fordham University Press |jstor=j.ctt9qds84 |isbn=978-0-8232-6386-8}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Watt">Watt, Montgomery, ''Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman.'' Oxford University Press, 1961. From p. 229.</ref> 

[[Cultural critic]] and author [[Edward Said]] wrote in ''[[Orientalism (book)|Orientalism]]'' regarding Dante's depiction of Muhammad:
{{quote|Empirical data about the Orient […] count for very little [i.e., in Dante's work]; what matters and is decisive is […] by no means confined to the professional scholar, but rather the common possession of all who have thought about the Orient in the West […]. What […] Dante tried to do in the ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', is […] to characterize the Orient as alien and to incorporate it schematically on a theatrical stage whose audience, manager, and actors are […] only for Europe. Hence the vacillation between the familiar and the alien; Mohammed is always the imposter (familiar, because he pretends to be like the Jesus we know) and always the Oriental (alien, because although he is in some ways "like" Jesus, he is after all not like him).<ref>{{cite book|last=Said|first=Edward|author-link=Edward Said|title=Orientalism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zvJ3YwOkZAYC|year=1979|publisher=Vintage Books|isbn=978-0-394-74067-6|page=68}}</ref>}}
Dante's representation of Muhammad [[Inferno (Dante)|''Inferno'']] 28 is generally interpreted as showing Dante’s disdain for [[Muslims]]. However, Dante's relation to Islam is more nuanced than what this canto would suggest. Dante lived during the [[Eighth Crusade|eighth]] and [[Ninth Crusade|ninth Crusades]] and would have been brought up around the idea that it is righteous to war against Muslims—namely, against the [[Hafsid dynasty]], the [[Sunni Islam|Sunni Muslims]] who ruled the Medieval province [[Ifriqiya]], an area on the northern coast of [[Africa]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Berend|first=Nora|date=2020-01-01|title=Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages: From Muhammad to Dante By Michael Frassetto|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jis/etaa040|journal=Journal of Islamic Studies|volume=33|issue=1|pages=111–112|doi=10.1093/jis/etaa040|issn=0955-2340}}</ref> It is not surprising that he would have been surrounded by anti-Islam rhetoric and have seen Muslims as the general enemy. For example, he shows his admiration for the crusaders when he writes about his great-great-grandfather [[Cacciaguida]] in the heavens of [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]] in [[Paradiso (Dante)|''Paradiso'']].<ref name="auto">{{Cite journal|date=1867-07-20|title=The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nq/s3-xii.290.59c|journal=Notes and Queries|volume=s3-XII|issue=290|pages=59|doi=10.1093/nq/s3-xii.290.59c|issn=1471-6941}}</ref> However, this narrative is complicated by Dante’s intellectual admiration for some Muslims in [[Inferno (Dante)|''Inferno'']] 4, and specifically [[Averroes]], [[Avicenna]], and [[Saladin]].<ref name="auto"/>

===Later presentations===
[[File:Nuremberg_chronicles_-_Mohammed_(CLIv).jpg|thumb|Muhammad in the ''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]'']]
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 until 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.<ref name="travel">[http://www.romanization.com/books/mandeville/chap15.html The Travels of Sir John Mandeville], CHAPTER XV.</ref>

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.<ref>''Mahomet'' still is the Polish and French word for the English "Muhammad".</ref> 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 [[early Muslim 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.<ref name="Watt"/>

In the [[Heldenbuch-Prosa]], a prose preface to the manuscript [[Heldenbuch]] of [[Diebolt von Hanowe]] from 1480, the demon Machmet appears to the mother of the [[Legends about Theodoric the Great|Germanic hero Dietrich]] and builds "Bern" ([[Verona]]) in three days.

== See also ==
{{commons|محمد_بن_عبد_الله#Western_depictions|Medieval depictions of Muhammad}}
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*[[Baphomet]]
*[[Christianity and Islam]]
*[[Jesus in Islam]]
*[[Mahound]]
*[[Mohammedan]]
*[[Muhammad and the Bible]]
*[[Orientalism]]
*[[Saracen]]
*[[Termagant]]
}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
<!-- To add a citation simply enclose the text you want to appear here inside a<ref></ref> pair in the correct place in the body of the article.-->
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book |first=Michelina |last=Di Cesare |title=The Pseudo-historical Image of the Prophet Muhammad in Medieval Latin Literature: A Repertory |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2012}}
*{{cite book | author=Ernst, Carl | year = 2004 | title = Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World | publisher = University of North Carolina Press | isbn = 0-8078-5577-4| author-link = Carl Ernst }}
*{{cite book | author=Esposito, John | year=1998 | title=Islam: The Straight Path | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=0-19-511233-4 | url=https://archive.org/details/islamstraightpat00espo_0 | author-link=John Esposito }}
*{{cite book | author=Esposito, John | year=1999 | title=The Islamic Threat: Myth Or Reality? | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=0-19-513076-6 | url=https://archive.org/details/islamicthreatmyt00espo | author-link=John Esposito }}
*{{cite book | author=Reeves, Minou | title=Muhammad in Europe: A Thousand Years of Western Myth-Making | year=2003 | publisher=NYU Press | isbn=978-0-8147-7564-6| author-link=Minou Reeves }}
*Shalem, Avinoam. Constructing the Image of Muhammad in Europe. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and Boston, 2013.
*{{cite book | author=Schimmel, Annemarie | year=1992 | title=Islam: An Introduction | publisher=SUNY Press | isbn=0-7914-1327-6| author-link=Annemarie Schimmel }}
*{{cite book | author=Schimmel, Annemarie | year=1995 | title=Mystische Dimensionen des Islam | publisher=Insel, Frankfurt | isbn=3-458-33415-7| author-link=Annemarie Schimmel }}
*{{cite book | author=Tolan, John | year=2002 | title=Saracens: Islam in the European imagination | publisher=Columbia University Press, New York | isbn=978-0231123334| author-link=John V. Tolan }}
*{{cite book |last=Tieszen |first=Charles |title=The Christian Encounter with Muhammad: How Theologians have Interpreted the Prophet |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2021}}
*{{cite book | author=Uebel, Michael | year=2005 | title=Ecstatic Transformation: On the Uses of Alterity in the Middle Ages | publisher=Palgrave, New York | isbn=978-1403965240| author-link=Michael Uebel }}
*{{cite book | author=Watt, W. Montgomery | title=Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1961 | isbn=0-19-881078-4 | url=https://archive.org/details/muhammadprophets00watt | author-link=William Montgomery Watt }}
*{{cite book | author=Watt, W. Montgomery | title=Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1974 | isbn=0-19-881078-4 | url=https://archive.org/details/muhammadprophets00watt | author-link=William Montgomery Watt }} New Edition.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051111092803/http://www.tf.uio.no/lo/lck/watt0191.html William Montgomery Watt, ''Muslim-Christian Encounters. Perceptions and Misperceptions'']
* [[Washington Irving|Irving, W.]] (1868). [https://archive.org/details/mahometandhissu01irvigoog Mahomet and his successors]. New York: Putnam
{{refend}}

''' Encyclopedias'''
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite encyclopedia |editor=F. Buhl |editor2=A.T. Welch |editor3=Annemarie Schimmel |editor4=A. Noth |editor5=Trude Ehlert | encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Islam]] Online | title=Various articles | publisher=Brill Academic Publishers | issn=1573-3912}}
*{{cite encyclopedia | title=The New Encyclopædia Britannica | publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Incorporated |edition=Rev | year=2005 | isbn=978-1-59339-236-9}}
{{refend}}

[[Category:Religious perspectives on Muhammad]]
[[Category:Criticism of Islam]]
[[Category:Christianity in the Middle Ages]]
[[Category:Christianity and Islam]]
[[Category:Point of view]]