Medieval anti-Islamic legend cast Muhammad’s revelation as staged deception

Evidence

Thomas of Pavia has a very remarkable version: Muhammad’s evil counsellor and guide, having taught him his tricks to fool the people, for a final trick stood in a dry well where, being hidden, he could simulate the voice of God. After he had spoken, Muhammad called on everyone to throw a stone into the well, ostensibly to mark the sacred occasion, practically to kill the inconvenient witness whose advice he now no longer needed. This version was not popular during the Middle Ages, but is still alive to-day in Oriental circles of little discrimination that are hostile to Islam. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1895

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme of medieval Christian polemics fabricating Islam’s origins as fraud, echoing earlier/other treatments of Muhammad legends. — connects to: Medieval legends credited Muhammad’s revelations to a heretical monk