Medieval Christians read the Antichrist prophecy as prefiguring Islam

Evidence

The term “Antichrist” could have two meanings for Christians. First, it referred to the Antichrist, he who was coming at the end of time to lead the faithful astray and who often (as here) has both heretical and Jewish tendencies: heretical in that he claims to be Christ and leads Christians astray, Jewish in that he denies that Christ is God and attempts to rebuild the temple and reinstate Jewish practices (prophecies to be remembered by Christians who watch circumcised Muslims who denied Jesus’ divinity building mosques on Jerusalem’s temple mount). Second, the word “Antichrist” (or at times, “precursor of Antichrist”) could be applied to various enemies of the church-particularly heretics: had not John said, after all, 8 • Foundations (Seventh-Eighth Centuries) “Such is the Antichrist: the person who denies the Father and the Son”? — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 109

Categorization

• XREF: The parenthetical observation connecting Muslim denial of Jesus’ divinity to the temple-mount mosque connects to my reading on Islamophobia and the religious accusations weaponized against outsiders. — connects to: Medieval polemicists read Ismael’s biblical disinheritance as prophecy of Islam’s enmity.
• QUESTION: When did the specific equation of Muhammad or Muslims with Antichrist first appear in Christian polemic? Worth tracing chronologically later.