Prideaux’s 1697 book made the Muhammad-as-impostor allegation commonplace

Evidence

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, no one influenced British and American attitudes toward Islam more than Humphrey Prideaux. In 1697, this Anglican theologian published his seminal book on the topic, The True Nature of Imposture Fully Display’d in the Life of Mahomet . The book’s popularity led to eight editions in 25 years with copies finding their way to the American colonies as early as 1746. 3 Although the volume’s central thesis—that a self-serving Muhammad intentionally deceived his followers by masquerading as a prophet—had long existed in Europe, his work made the allegation commonplace. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 104

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: The Prideaux trope is the deep root the fearer’s inheritance; connects to chapter comparisons on received truisms.

Related

• An 1808 polemic seeded modern American terrorist depictions of Muslims (similarity 0.85)
• Dean Prideaux’s anti-Muhammad polemic recycled medieval accusations well into the Enlightenment. (similarity 0.82)
• Even notorious anti-Muslim polemicists eventually saw their own excesses as counterproductive. (similarity 0.79)