Assessment of Material Relating to Prophet Muhammad by Some French-Speaking Writers

From The Eighteenth Century Onwards

Abstract

This paper analyzes some important French Speaking writers’ views on the Sirah of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The authors I have chosen for discussion include Jean Gagnier, Boulainviller,* Claude Emmanuel-Joseph, Marquis de Pastoret, Armand Pierre Caussin, Alphonse de Lamartine, Caussin de Perceval, Emile Dermenghem, Hichem Djaït and Salim Bachi.
In the middle Ages, Western writers were not capable of giving a balanced account of Muhammad (SAW). A fair assessment of Muhammad’s life requires a sound knowledge of Arabic. Unfortunately, most of European scholars did not fulfil this requirement in the previous centuries and the Frenchmen were not an exception to this rule. Jean Gagnier is more interested in a legendary Muhammad (SAW) than in historical one. Boulainviller frequently extols the virtues of Muhammad (SAW). Although he mostly describes the life of Muhammad (SAW) in a positive manner, he often refers to him as an impostor. In doing so he perhaps follows the trend, current in the eighteenth century, when Muhammad (SAW) was included, in texts against revealed religion, as one of the impostors. Pastoret also views Muhammad (SAW) as an impostor, but he acknowledges his skills, genius, and profound thinking. However, he presents Muhammad (SAW) as inferior in morality and legislation to Confucius and Zoroaster respectively. In the nineteenth century, Caussin felt that it is an injustice to consider Muhammad (SAW) merely as a successful and ambitious impostor. Lamartine shows a tendency to overemphasize the affinities between Christianity and Islam, and the influence of the former on the latter. It is only from the twentieth century onwards that the stigma of imposture is removed from Muhammad (SAW). Dermenghem has an ambivalent attitude to Muhammad (SAW).