Eighteenth-century readers saw Sale’s Qur’an portrait as too pro-Muslim

Evidence

Although Sale made it perfectly clear that he considered Muhammad to be an impostor, ‘how criminal soever Muhammad may have been in imposing a false religion on mankind, the praises due to his real virtues ought not to be denied him’. Despite this damnably faint praise, many of his readers thought his portrait of the Prophet and the rise of Islam much too favourable and Gibbon called Sale ‘half a Musulman’. — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 213

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the modern reception of nuanced treatments of the Prophet being attacked from both sides — connects to current debates over respectful historical treatments of Islam.

Related

• Gibbon’s Enlightenment account of Muhammad recycled medieval themes unchanged (similarity 0.78)