Medieval polemicists etymologized Mecca as adulteress to condemn Muhammad
Evidence
- Pedro de Alfonso, loc. cit. and Anon. Minorita 16; Viterbo in xvi yr. 612; Mark, Pref. Q. (San Pedro had another version of this pun: Mecca means adulteress in Latin, ‘a deviation from the right law, and so Muhammad fulfilled the signification of the city’: SSM 1.1.1); Rod. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2027
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the standing interest in how polemic and defamation weaponize etymology — resonant with how names get re-etymologized to condemn groups, e.g. ‘Gothic’ or ‘barbarian’ etymologies.
- SHARE: A medieval Latin pun deriving ‘Mecca’ from ‘adulteress’ to literalize Muhammad’s supposed mission would delight anyone working on medieval Christian-Islamic polemic.