Leibniz held shifting, contradictory images of Muslims within one mind

Evidence

In the history of Western responses to Islam, what is fascinating about Leibniz is that he exemplifies a certain ideological overlap, a peculiar transition between a theological repudiation of Islam (Muslims as enemies of Christ) and an early Enlightenment rejection of the “Mohammedan” (Muslims as enemies of reason and civilization). Sometimes Leibniz’s Mohammedan is the Erbfeind or hereditary enemy/ritual foe, other times he is elevated to the status of mere barbarian, whilst on rare occasions he is even grudgingly acknowledged to be the professor of a natural (though still errant) philosophy. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 361

Categorization

• XREF: Leibniz’s sliding register — hereditary enemy, barbarian, grudging philosopher — parallels the reader’s own inquiry into the image shifting as the Western container needs it to.
• DEFINE: Introduces ‘Erbfeind’ as the specific German term for hereditary/ritual enemy that outlives theology into Enlightenment discourse.