Modern Western scholars retained medieval judgements about Muhammad.

Evidence

The Christian monk then explains “the signs of prophecy which oblige one to recognize the title of prophet and of apostle to him who shows them.” The Muslim notion of rasûl differs from Christian and Jewish notions of “prophet.” The Christian author does not acknowledge this, again suggesting that his real audience is fellow Christians and not his fictitious Muslim correspondent. The two signs of prophecy are revelation of things unknown (past and future) and performance of miracles. Muhammad foretold nothing, whereas the Hebrew prophets, Christ, and the apostles did. Muhammad produced no miracles, as the Koran expressly states; the miracles attributed to him are false. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 394 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

Related

• Ancient criteria of prophecy were applied selectively to predetermine Muhammad’s failure (similarity 0.89)
• Medieval Christians judged Muhammad by criteria his own theology did not claim (similarity 0.88)
• Medieval Christian polemicists judged Muhammad by Christian criteria for prophecy (similarity 0.88)
• Medieval polemicists read Ismael’s biblical disinheritance as prophecy of Islam’s enmity. (similarity 0.87)
• The Western view of Islam was fixed by 1350 and persists today (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval Christians held Muhammad’s lack of miracles as decisive against his prophethood (similarity 0.83)
• Christian polemicists seized on Muhammad’s wounds as proof he lacked divine protection (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval critics narrowed prophecy to future-telling to disqualify Muhammad. (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval Christians doubted Islam’s truth yet marveled at its success (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval Christians saw Islam as salvation by faith without works (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval Christian writers widely understood Muhammad as merely a prophet (similarity 0.82)
• Since the early medieval period, Christendom largely viewed Islam as a Christian heresy and Muhammad as a false prophet, a servant of Satan, or the Antichrist. (similarity 0.81)
• The fourfold prophecy tests were deliberately tailored to condemn Muhammad (similarity 0.81)
• Mediaeval authors often deliberately chose the worst accounts of Muhammad. (similarity 0.81)
• An established anti-Islamic literature existed in the West by 1350 (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Medieval anti-Muslim imagery persists unbroken into modern Western culture #corroborates (0.88)
• Medieval Christian polemicists judged Muhammad by Christian criteria for prophecy #expands (0.85) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 394
• Western scholarship is biased against narratives of Muhammad’s success #corroborates (0.80)
• Western superiority over Muslims traces to the Middle Ages but changed form. #expands (0.80)
• Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries #qualifies (0.75) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 106