Christian polemicists knowingly distorted Muhammad’s biography to fit Antichrist archetypes
Evidence
One of its several nastier absurdities is the notion that Muhammad expected to rise again on the third day after his death; in the Middle Ages this reappeared in the very slightly more reasonable version that he expected his body to be carried to Heaven by angels.! — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 65 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Here Muhammad functions as Antichrist (although Alfonsi does not use the term), promising (but failing) to rise from the dead on the third day: his rotting corpse is presented as evidence of his error. Yet ‘Alî’s clever lie keeps the people in error; hence Alfonsi is able both to denigrate Muhammad and explain the success of Islam. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 810 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Christian polemicists explained Muhammad’s prophethood as a fraudulent bid for kingship; Mediaeval authors often deliberately chose the worst accounts of Muhammad.; Polemical ‘signs of prophecy’ tests were rigged against Muhammad (+14 more)
Broader Connections
- Medieval Christian polemicists fabricated absurdly distorted biographies of Muhammad
#corroborates(0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 65 - Medieval polemicists cast Muhammad as a failed Antichrist to explain Islam’s spread
#complicates(0.95) - Medieval polemic framed Muhammad as Antichrist figure and Islam’s spread as fraud’s persistence
#complicates(0.95) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 810 - Long-running Christian polemics congealed into one fixed hostile portrait of Muhammad
#complicates(0.90) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 620 - Medieval Christian polemics modeled Muhammad’s life on Christ’s as a deliberate inversion
#complicates(0.90) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 496 - Christian polemicists used Muslim sources to prove Muhammad was a soothsayer
#complicates(0.90) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 180 - Christian polemicists privileged Muhammad’s self-denial of miracles as their key evidence
#complicates(0.90) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 425 - Belief in conspiracies and suppressed facts enabled Christian distortion of Muhammad.
#complicates(0.85) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1377