Faces of Muhammad: Western Perceptions of the Prophet of Islam from the Middle Ages to Today

319 Pages·2019·38.88 MB·English

by  John Tolan

Faces oF MuhaMMad
Faces of Muhammad
Western PercePtions oF the
ProPhet oF islaM FroM the
Middle ages to today
John V. Tolan
Princeton university Press
Princeton & oxFord
Copyright © 2019 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press
41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR
press.princeton.edu
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019935406
ISBN: 978- 0- 691- 16706- 0
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Editorial: Fred Appel and Thalia Leaf
Production Editorial: Karen Carter
Jacket Design: Layla Mac Rory
Jacket Art: Shutterstock
Production: Jacqueline Poirier
Publicity: Tayler Lord and Kathryn Stevens
Copyeditor: Dawn Hall
This book has been composed in Miller
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my teachers,
especially Irene Harney, Steve Bruemmer, Mark Hilgendorf,
Jim Kearny, John Stephens, and Bernie McGinn
and Rob Bartlett.
نَ يلِهِ اجَ لْا نِ عَ ضْ رِعْ َأوَ فِ \رُْعلْاِب رْمُْأوَ وَفَْعلْا ذِخُ
Take what is given freely, enjoin what is good,
and turn away from the ignorant.
— Qur’ān 7:199
contents
List of Illustrations · ix
Acknowledgments · xi
introduction 1
chaPter 1. Mahomet the Idol 19
chaPter 2. Trickster and Heresiarch 44
chaPter 3. Pseudoprophet of the Moors 73
chaPter 4. Prophet of the Turks 101
chaPter 5. Republican Revolutionary in Renaissance
England 132
chaPter 6. The Enlightenment Prophet: Reformer
and Legislator 155
chaPter 7. Lawgiver, Statesman, Hero:
The Romantics’ Prophet 184
chaPter 8. A Jewish Muhammad? The View from
Jewish Communities of Nineteenth-
Century Central Europe 210
chaPter 9. Prophet of an Abrahamic Faith 233
conclusion 259
Notes · 265
Index · 301
[ vii ]
illustrations
1. Eugène Delacroix (1798– 1863), Étude pour
Mahomet et son ange. Drawing with watercolor,
nineteenth century. Paris, Musée du Louvre
(RF 10017). 17
2. Sansadoines destroys the idol of Mahomet. Chanson
d’Antioche, Bibilothèque Nationale de France, MS
Français 786, f 186v (late thirteenth century). 27
3. The Prophet Isaiah chastises two Jews worshipping
a “Mahomet.” Stained glass window in the Sainte
Chapelle, Paris (1242– 1248). 38
4. The flight into Egypt, from the Holkham picture
bible (early fourteenth century). British Library
Add. 47682, f.15. England, ca. 1320– 1330. 39
5. Tancred destroys the idol of Mahomet in Jerusalem.
Antoine Caillot, Tableau des croisades pour la
conquete de la terre- sainte (Paris, 1843), frontispiece. 42
6. Mahomet preaching with a dove on his shoulder; a
bull brings the Qur’ān on his horns. Illustration ca.
1409– 1425, in Laurent de Premierfait, Des cas des
nobles hommes et femmes, drawn by the “Master of
Rohan.” Paris, BNF MS Français 226, f. 243 (XVe s.). 45
7. Machomeete preaching, with doves at his ears.
Lydgate, Fall of Princes, London BL Harley 1766,
f. 223. 67
8. Machomeete killed by swine. Lygdate, Fall of
Princes, London BL Harley 1766, f. 224. 69
9. Saracen praying before Mahomet’s floating tomb in
Mecca. Catalan Atlas (1375), Paris, BNF, MS Esp. 30. 70
10. Lopo Homem, Miller Atlas, Lisbon, 1519 (BnF
Cartes et plans, GE DD 683 RES f 3), India, The
Indian Ocean and Arabia. 71
[ ix ]
[ x ] illustrations
11. L’imposteur Mahomet et le séducteur Calvin,
Almanach pour l’an de grace, 1687. Bibliothèque
nationale de France, Paris, France. 102
12. Tree of Heresies, ca. 1560, print, Amsterdam,
Rijksmuseum FMH 435- F. http://hdl.handle
.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.442616 (work in
the public domain). 112
13. Pilgrims in adoration before Mahomet’s floating
coffin; de Bry & de Bry, Acta Mechmeti I.
Saracenorum Principis, p. 26. 125
14. Dove and bull miracles, from 1696 Dutch
translation of the Qur’ān. 127
15. Luigi Primo Gentile, Triunfo dell’Immacolata
(1663), Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli,
Rome. 130
16. Mahomet crowned king has idols destroyed
everywhere. Boulainvilliers, Vie de Mahomed, 2nd
ed. (Amsterdam, 1731), p. 430. 161
17. Muhammad, detail from the mural by Louis
Bouquet, Salon du Ministre in the Musée des
Colonies, Paris, 1931. 234
acknoWledgMents
this book is the Fruit of a career working on the history of
how European Christians have understood Islam and how they
have made sense of its rival claims to the heritage of Abraham. More
immediately, it is the result of a proposal by Fred Appel of Princeton
University Press who saw the need for a scholarly overview of the
history of European perceptions of the prophet of Islam. My thanks
to Fred for his encouragement and for accompanying this project to
completion.
I received generous assistance from the Kulturwissenschaftliches
Kolleg at the University of Konstanz, where I had the honor and
pleasure of serving as a research fellow from January to June of
2016, allowing me precious uninterrupted time for reading and re-
search along the banks of the Rhine. My warm thanks to the ex-
tremely helpful staff, in particular Fred Girod, Christina Thoma,
Daniela Göpfrich, and Carolin Schulz. Special thanks also to Doro-
thea Weltecke for inviting me to the Kolleg.
I have presented parts of this book in various seminars and con-
ferences in Europe, North America, and Iran: in particular at the
conference “Crossing Boundaries, Creating Images: In Search of the
Prophet Muhammad in Literary and Visual Traditions” at the Kun-
sthistorisches Institut, Florence (2009); at the colloquium “Repre-
sentations of Muhammad” at the University of Edinburgh (2015);
at the conference “Mimetic Theory and Islam” at the University of
Innsbruck (2016); at the workshop “The Prophet Muhammad in the
Eyes of Europeans” at the University of Isfahan (2016); at the sym-
posium “The Location of Europe: Shared and Divided Memories in
the Global Age” at Schloss Herrenhausen, Hannover (2016); at the
seminar “Logiques d’Empire” at the Université Jean Jaurès, Tou-
louse (2017); and at the symposium “Processes of Entanglement and
Disentanglement” at the University of Münster (2017). Many thanks
to those who participated in these events and prodded me to explore
these issues in greater precision and depth and in particular to those
who invited me: Daniel Baloup, Wolfram Drews, Etienne François,
[ xi ]
[ xii ] acknoWledgMents
Tony Gorman, Christiane Gruber, Asghar Montazerolghaem, Wolf-
gang Palaver, Thomas Serrier, and Avinoam Shalem.
Thanks to Ashley Miller for information on Louis Bouquet’s
painting of Muhammad and to Megan Holmes for help in tracking
down images. Thanks to Alberto Saviello for help and advice con-
cerning several images. Thanks to Ann Watt for precious biographi-
cal information concerning her father, Montgomery Watt. Special
thanks to those who read and offered corrections and commentaries
to earlier versions of one or more of the chapters of this book: Domi-
nique Avon, Ruchama Johnston-B loom, Nabil Matar, and Karen
Spierling. And above all to those who read through the whole manu-
script and gave valuable feedback: Andrea Celli, Ana Echevarria,
Ziad Elmarsafy, Christiane Gruber, Suleiman Mourad, and Amy
Remensnyder.