Carlyle reversed every traditional European view of Muhammad as voluptuary and swordsman.
Evidence
Yet Latin readers depended on him for their facts, and so many important events, undoubtedly known to, but not mentioned by, him, they never learned. Moreover, they were unable to check or confirm the facts that they did learn from the Risalah, since it was usually their sole source of information about them. What in the Arabic was really a critical appraisal of events had now to serve in the place of a straightforward recital of them. If the Arabic condemned the acts of the Companions as robbery, European readers understood that Muhammad literally gathered together a band of ‘profane men, highwaymen, plunderers, murderers and robbers’ and terrorised the countryside. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 532 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: A single polemical source distorted Latin Europe’s entire picture of Muhammad — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 532
Related
- A single polemical source distorted Latin Europe’s entire picture of Muhammad (similarity 0.91)
- Long-running Christian polemics congealed into one fixed hostile portrait of Muhammad (similarity 0.80)
- Access to translated source texts did not guarantee accurate medieval portraits of Muhammad (similarity 0.79)
- Medieval polemic attacked Muslim aspects that scandalized Christian observers (similarity 0.79)
- Medieval Christian writers sometimes preserved authentic Islamic legends about Muhammad (similarity 0.79)
- Medieval Christian polemicists mined Islamic sources to justify pre-existing accusations against Muhammad. (similarity 0.79)
- Arabic texts were prized for polemic authenticity yet intellectually ignored by Latin Christians (similarity 0.78)
- Reappraisal of Muhammad’s character came mainly from authentic Muslim sources (similarity 0.78)
- Medieval Europe’s portrait of Muhammad’s Arabia was largely accurate history (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- A single polemical source distorted Latin Europe’s entire picture of Muhammad
#expands(0.85) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 532