Medieval Christian polemicists fabricated a grotesque death for Muhammad to discredit him.

Evidence

Sensing his imminent destruction and knowing that he would in no way be resurrected on his own merit, he predicted that he would be revived on the third day by the angel Gabriel, who was in the habit of appearing to him in the guise of a vulture, as Muhammad himself said. When he gave up his soul to hell, they ordered his body to be guarded with an arduous vigil, anxious about the miracle which he had promised them. When on the third day they saw he was rotting, and determined that he would not by any means be rising, they said the angels did not come because they were frightened by their presence. Having found sound advice—or so they thought— they left his body unguarded, and immediately instead of angels, dogs followed his stench and devoured his flank. Learning of the deed, they surrendered the rest of his body to the soil. And in vindication of this injury, they ordered dogs to be slaughtered every year so that they, who on his behalf deserve a worthy martyrdom here, might share in his merit there. It was appropriate that a prophet of this kind fill the stomach of dogs, a prophet who committed not only his own soul, but those of many, to hell. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 527

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the author’s broader work in this book on how Christian/European writers misrepresented Islam — and to later medieval polemics (Dante, Luther) repeating such fabrications. — connects to: Medieval polemic assigned Muhammad a death by pigs reflecting his supposed teaching of uncleanness
• DEFINE: Shows how a specific Antichrist-motif gets concretely applied to Muhammad’s imagined biography.