European epic poems invented a triad of Saracen idols including Mahumet

Evidence

Back in Europe, the image of the Saracen as idolater lives on, particularly in the Chansons de Geste, the French epic poems glorifying the exploits of Charlemagne and his knights. The Chanson de Roland portrays the Arabs or Saracens as pagans who worship a triad of idols: Mahumet, Apollin, and Tervagant. The Saracen knights invoke the aid of these idols, whose images adorn the banners they carry into battle. Their idols, of course, prove to be powerless to stop the Christian’s victory: despite the death of the hero Roland, Charlemagne, with the help of the angel Gabriel, routs the combined forces of all paganism. When Roland cuts off the right hand of the Saracen king Marsile in battle, the king flees home to Saragossa and his people vent their anger against their idols: they hurl Mahumet from the parapets into a ditch where it is sullied by dogs and pigs (in the passage quoted at the beginning of this chapter). When the Christian warriors takes Saragossa, they smash with hammers the idols they find in the “sinagoges” and “mahumeries” (ll. 3661–65). — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 688

Categorization

• XREF: This genealogically grounds the ‘Islam as idolatry’ trope that Anidjar/Aziz show persisting in modern polemics — the invention of Muhammad-worship as Christian lie about Muslims.
• SEED: The invention of ‘Mahumet as idol’ in Chanson de Roland is a concrete origin-point for tracing how Islamophobic tropes were literally fabricated as fiction centuries ago.