Voltaire’s Islam critique oscillated between polemic and sober analysis

Evidence

In another mood Voltaire was more willing after all to learn from Boulainvilliers and Sale, and complained self-righteously of other sources of knowledge, of ‘what our historians, our rhetoricians and our prejudices tell us’. … He conceded, inconsistently with the position that he had earlier adopted, and even insisted, that Muhammad ‘deceived himself in deceiving others’; nevertheless, he really remained unconverted on the issue of hypocrisy. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1620

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Voltaire attacked Muhammad as a mask for criticizing Christianity itself