The rhetoric of antichrist in Western lives of Muhammad

Abstract

Reformation and Early Modern texts frequently suggest that Islam is the manifestation of satanic power, and represent the Prophet of Islam as an instrument of the devil, even as Antichrist. Such depictions have their source in medieval accounts of the life of Muhammad. This article surveys Latin, French, and English lives of Muhammad from the eleventh to the fifteenth century, including those found in the Vita Mahumeti, the Otia de Machomete, the Roman de Mahomet, Lydgate's Fall of Princes, and Langland's Piers Plowman. These accounts depict Muhammad as a deceptive magician, controlling his followers by means of false miracles. Like Antichrist, Muhammad is said to be eloquent, possessing material wealth and claiming to be the Messiah. The variations in these lives of Muhammad reveal how the perception of Islam developed differently in the various communities which produced these texts. These texts also reveal much about how medieval Western Christians viewed themselves in relation to the world around them.

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