Medieval Christians read Muhammad’s social rise as scandal, not achievement

Evidence

There was no feeling for the self-made man, save disapproval. There was, however, a sense of dramatic contrast between the poor orphan of humble origin and the princeps Saracenorum that he became. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 487

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the vault cluster on how ‘Islam’ is constructed as the West’s constitutive outside — the denial of legitimate self-making to Muhammad parallels how ‘the Racial Muslim’ is denied authorship of his own tradition.
• ADDENDUM: Supports the modesty/immodesty thread: misalliance and social-climbing-as-hereditary-degradation echo how sumptuary and moral panics mark class outsiders.