Stereotypes associated with prototypes of the prophet of Islam's name till the 19th Century

Abstract EN

The name of the Prophet of Islam is supposed to be transliterated by Arabs and many Western specialists in Arabic as Muhammad, Mohammad, Mohamed or in other forms very similar to its Arabic spelling.

However, these forms differ notably from other orthographic variants coined since the first contact with Islam, or the knowledge received about Islam, first in the East and later in some Western cultures.

The literature written about the Prophet includes spelling variants of his name that were formulated and modified by Churchmen and orientalists between the seventh and the nineteenth centuries.

The alterations of the name of the Prophet of Islam in Western Christian literature are based on an Eastern prototype.

This prototype generated other kinds of Western prototypes which reflect, in a way, stereotypes that can be associated with these alterations.

This study gives a repertoire of these prototypes in Greek and Latin literature and the orthographic forms which varied among or were shared by two Western cultures: Spain and France.

It further attempts to show how these stereotypes are charged with the feelings attached to the name and Islam.

The most common portrayals represent the Prophet as a false prophet, a Saracen prince or deity, a writer of the Quran, the Anti-Christ, the Biblical beast, a schismatic from Christianity and a satanic creature.