A Latin historian mistranslated al-Mahdi as the Leveller

Evidence

William thought that al-Mahdi (as Ubaydullah’s title) meant complanans, the Leveller, ‘he who directed all things to quiet, and without trouble made the ways level for the people’. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1800

Categorization

• DEFINE: Interesting etymology failure: William of Tyre rendered al-Mahdi’s title as ‘Leveller’ rather than ‘guided one’.
• CANDY: A fun trivia nugget: a medieval Christian historian thought the Muslim messiah title meant ‘the one who levels the way for the people’.