Medieval Latin Lives of Muhammad: Al-Masāq

 

Al-Masāq Mediterranean anean  Journal of the Medieval Mediterr

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Medieval Latin Lives of Muhammad Finn Schulze-Feldmann To cite this article:  Finn Schulze-Feldmann (2019): Medieval Latin Lives of Muhammad, Al-Masāq, DOI: 10.1080/0950 10.1080/09503110.2019.166 3110.2019.1662601 2601

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09503110.2019.1662601

Published online: 04 Sep 2019.

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AL-MASĀQ

BOOK REVIEW Medieval Latin Lives of Muhammad, Julian Yolles and Jessica Weiss (Ed. and trans.),

2018, Cambridge, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ Universit ersityy Press, xli + 664 pp., UN$29.9 UN$29.95/£27. 5/£27.95 95 (hardback), ISBN 9780674980730 Christianity and Islam have each always accorded great importance to one central   󿬁gure on which their theology pivots. As tensions between the two religions heightened, Christian polemics turned to composing vitriolic accounts of Muh ammad’s life, in order to appeal to an audience that   –  especially in the Middle Ages with its rich hagiographical practice   –  was highly hig hly rec recept eptive ive to bio biogra graphi phical cal sto storyt rytell elling ing.. Thi Thiss lit litera erary ry tra tradit dition ion,, whi which ch sch schola olars rs hav havee called   “counter-history ”,   “parasi parasitical tical histo historiograp riography  hy ”   or   “anti-hagiography ”, is what the  volume  Medieval Latin Liv es of Muhammad  from   from the Latin series of the Dumbarton Oaks 1 Medieval Library presents. A thematic anthology, it compiles a selection of nine prose,  verse and epistolary treatments of the Prophet’s life from nearly   󿬁 ve centuries, giving the Latin version circulating in medieval Europe and a modern English translation. In tracing  how the depictions of Muh ammad evolved in the medieval West, this handsome volume brings into focus how the gradual manifestation of certain motives and falsehoods in tropes shaped the perception of Islam as a whole. The three earliest accounts of Muh ammad’s life originate from the two main points of  contact between Muslims and Christians in the Middle Ages. On the Iberian Peninsula, anti-Islamic polemics had emerged as a means of resistance against the Muslims, who had settled there since the early eighth century. In this context, Eulogius of Córdoba composed the so-called  Historia de Mahomet , the earliest surviving Latin life of Muh ammad. Placing  Islam outside the Christian fold, this ninth-century work portrayed the Prophet as an instrument of the devil and a harbinger of the Antichrist. According to the more obscure  Tultusceptru de Libro domini Methodi , Muh ammad was originally a Christian monk named Ozim. While he was on a missionary journey, a demonic angel entranced him, renamed him and made him speak words loosely resembling the Islamic call to prayer. This idea that Islam was a Christian heresy allowed Christians to explain the affinities between the Qur ān and the Bible, as well as to deploy the anti-heretical strategies developed by the Church Fathers. Much more in󿬂uential than these early Spanish examples was the Latin rendition of an early-ninth-century account written by Theophanes in the Byzantine Empire. This continuation of the Greek world chronicle by George Synkellos introduced crucial elements for the later biographical tradition of Muh ammad, such as the support he received from the Jews, the   󿬁gure of a pseudo-monk and the epilepsy he su ff ered ered from. Possibly more than merely coincidental with the early crusades was the composition of the 󿬁rst extensive biography from Western Europe by Embrico of Mainz. His versi 󿬁ed  Life of   Muhammad  was   was soon followed by the  Poetic Pastimes on Muhammad  by Walter of Compiègne and an account by an otherwise unknown author by the name of Adelphus. Crucial to Embr Embrico ico’s treatment of Muh ammad’s life is a magician who installed Mammutius, a fo form rmer er slav slave, e, as king king of Ly Lybi biaa and and de dece ceiv ived ed the the popu popula lace ce in into to beli believ evin ingg th that at he wa wass a prophet. For establishing a new religion based on sexual debauchery, Mammutius is eventually  ʾ

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Amos Funkenstein,   “History, Counterhistory, and Narrative”, in in Probing  Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the   “Final  Solution , ed. Saul Friedlander Fr iedlander (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992), pp. 66–81, esp. 80; Barbara Roggema, The Roggema, The ”  

Legend of Sergius Bahira: Eastern Christian Apologetics and Apocalyptic in Response to Islam (Leiden: Islam (Leiden: Brill, 2009), p. 30; John Tolan,   “Anti-Hagiography: Embrico of Mainz’s Vita Mahumeti”,  Journal of Medieval History  22   22 (1996): 25–41.

 

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punished by God with epilepsy. In addition to drawing on these earlier traditions, Embrico also introduced new elements such as the miraculous suspension of Mammutius ’s grave and the explanation that the prohibited consumption of pork resulted from pigs having devoured Muhammad’s body. For Walter of Compiègne, Muh ammad was a more autonomous character. He was sufficiently learned in Christian teachings to create his own doctrine without the help of the monk present in many  Lives  Lives. So powerful was he indeed that he was able to suspend his coffin mid-air. Adelphus again went so far as to identify the Christian monk assisting  Muh ammad as the   󿬁fth-century archbishop of Constantinople, Nestorius. By far the longest work printed in this volume is the  Apology of al-Kind īī ,  which was introduced to the European West when, in the 1140s, Peter the Venerable had a set of religious tracts relating to Islam translated into Latin. Particularly interesting for the purpose of this collection is the fact that, even though the many references to earlier invectives anchor the work in a polemical framework, this Arab-Christian refutation of Islam draws on a wealth of knowledge of Muslim practices. That the work is inclu included ded in its entiret entiretyy is, howev however, er, rather surprising given that, due to its argumentative nature, it primarily focuses on doctrinal issues and not on the presentation of Muh ammad’s biography. Its inclusion must at the same time be applauded, for the editors thus present the breadth of accounts that shaped the image of  Muh ammad in the Latin West, irrespec irrespective tive of the geograph geographical ical or cultu cultural ral origin of each biography, that is, Latin lives of Muhammad from Europe as well as translations of accounts originatin ina tingg fro from m out outsid sidee Eur Europe ope.. All the mor moree doe doess it str strike ike me, how howeve ever, r, tha thatt des despit pitee thi thiss commendably broad scope, similarly in󿬂uential translations such as Bonaventure of Siena ’s Liber scalae Machometi  were left out. Nor does the decision to exclude biographical accounts embedd emb edded ed in oth other er literar literaryy wor works ks see seem m con convin vincin cingly gly and sufficient ciently ly justi󿬁ed, given the authoritative account of Muh ammad’s life in the  Golden Legend . Two short anonymous accounts from the thirteenth century conclude the volume. They not only share a common origin in the monastic context of the late medieval mendicant orders, but they also are both connected to a  󿬁 gure named Nicholas. Whereas Where Wicked Muhammad  Came From recalls polemics from earlier centuries by relating Muh ammad to sexual debauchery and a certain hostility against the Christian Church, the tone of the  Liber Nycholay  is  is much more conciliatory than that of any other work included in this volume. Here, even though Islam is reputedly founded with the intention to revenge Muh ammad’s failed attempt to become pope, its concl become concludin udingg comp comparison arison highligh highlights ts the simil similaritie aritiess betwee between n Chris Christiani tianity  ty  and Islam. The volume  Medieval Latin Lives of Muhammad  is   is a welcome contribution to the study of  Christian–Islam Islamic ic relati relations. ons. Produced in superb quality, quality, it showc showcases ases the real diversity of the Latin accounts of Muh ammad’s life available in the medieval Latin West. With its   󿬁ne translations, it off ers ers those interested in Christian invectives against Islam a great study tool. However, those seeking an accessible way into this   󿬁eld might   󿬁nd the rather brief introduction unsatisfactory in its contextualisation and scholarly discussion of each work. In sum, this collection will be a vital resource for anyone undertaking studies of religious polemics, the history of Muslim–Christian relations and the image of Muh ammad. Finn Schulze-Feldmann The Warburg Institute, University of London, London, UK