The polemical biography of Muhammad as liar, plunderer and lecher is medieval in origin

Evidence

In order to prove that this is indeed shameful, and that crusade is the only possible solution, he needs to paint the Saracens in the worst possible light. He does this by giving first a brief vituperative biography of “Machometus,” whom he describes as “not only … most false and lying, but a most atrocious plunderer, the worst spiller of human blood, and even most stinking in the sin of lust.” Here he repeats many of the vicious legends about Muhammad: Machometus was schooled in astrology and magic, received a religious education from the Nestorian monk Sergius, passed off his epileptic fits as visits from Gabriel. He describes the episode of Zayd and Zaynab in hostile terms and repeats Petrus Alfonsi’s story of the promised and failed resurrection of Machometus. Fidentius, more concerned with shock effect than veracity, finds these hostile legends useful. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1079

Categorization

• XREF: Direct evidence for where the modern tropes of Muhammad as false prophet, violent conqueror and sexually deviant come from — genealogically grounds the vault’s claims about Islamophobic tropes.
• ADDENDUM: Supports the ‘immodesty’ article’s theme of how moralizing about lust/effeminacy was weaponized against out-groups.