Medieval polemic framed Muhammad as Antichrist figure and Islam’s spread as fraud’s persistence

Evidence

Here Muhammad functions as Antichrist (although Alfonsi does not use the term), promising (but failing) to rise from the dead on the third day: his rotting corpse is presented as evidence of his error. Yet ‘Alî’s clever lie keeps the people in error; hence Alfonsi is able both to denigrate Muhammad and explain the success of Islam. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 810

Categorization

• XREF: Direct medieval root-source of the vault’s thesis that the West defines Islam negatively against Christianity — the Antichrist-fraud double move does exactly the oppositional work Anidjar describes.
• DEEPTHINKING: The two-step move — denigrate the founder yet explain why the religion nonetheless spread — is the template for later ‘why do they believe a lie’ frameworks; dense and worth holding.