The Vita Machometi is a Latin biography of Muḥammad written by a certain Adelphus in the early to mid-12th century.[1] Nothing is known of the author but what he reveals about himself in the Vita.[2] This includes that he had heard the Muslim call to prayer and had conversed with a Greek about Islam while staying in Antioch on a return trip from Jerusalem.[3] Taken together, these facts suggest that he may have been a participant in the First Crusade.[4] He seems to have had a biblical and classical education.[5] He may have been a Benedictine abbot.[6]
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The Vita is a polemical account of Muḥammad's life based, so Adelphus claims, on the account of the Greek from Antioch.[4] It contains a mixture of actual knowledge of Islam and imaginary and folkloric accounts of its origins. Adelphus had clear misgivings about his information and sought to blame "the inventiveness of the Greeks".[7] The Vita relates that Muḥammad was a swineherd led by an evil spirit to seek out the heretical monk Nestorius (probably intended to refer to the Patriarch Nestorius). The latter teaches him magic and necromancy.[8] They create a new holy book—the Qurʾān—by corrupting the Bible, although Adelphus does not describe their doctrines in detail.[9] They present Muḥammad as a new prophet and produce fake miracles. Muḥammad marries the "queen of Babylon". To take over the leadership of the movement, he murders Nestorius and frames a bodyguard. Since the murder took place while all were drunk, he bans alcohol.[4] While out hunting one day, Muḥammad is attacked and eaten by pigs, which is why Muslims refuse to eat pork.[8]
The Vita Machometi contains many parallels to the 11th-century Latin life of Muḥammad by Embrico of Mainz.[9] The murder of Muḥammad's tutor is also found in the account of William of Tripoli.[10] Like Guibert of Nogent, Adelphus portrays Islam as the latest in a succession of Christian heresies arising in the east, like monophysitism and Nestorianism.[4] In addition to these western influences, he includes material borrowed from eastern traditions.[8]
The Vita Machometi was not widely read. It is known from a single manuscript of the mid-12th century, now in the Municipal Library of Trier and catalogued as MS 1897 (18).[8] The manuscript also contains the Historia de preliis and Berno of Reichenau's tonary.[4]
Notes edit
- ^ Tolan 2011 says early. Yolles & Weiss 2018, p. xvii, say mid.
- ^ Tolan 2011; Yolles & Weiss 2018, p. xviii. Even his name is based on a somewhat uncertain reading of the manuscript, leading Yolles & Weiss, p. xxxv, n. 34, to call him Pseudo-Adelphus.
- ^ Tolan 2011; Yolles & Weiss 2018, p. xvii.
- ^ a b c d e Tolan 2011.
- ^ Yolles & Weiss 2018, p. xix.
- ^ According to Yolles & Weiss 2018, p. xxxv, n. 36, the 15th-century writer Johannes Trithemius cited a certain Contra Sarracenos liber ('Book against the Saracens') written by a Benedictine abbot named Adelphus, which may be the Vita.
- ^ Tolan 2002, pp. 137–138.
- ^ a b c d Tolan 2011; Yolles & Weiss 2018, p. xviii.
- ^ a b Yolles & Weiss 2018, p. xviii.
- ^ Yolles & Weiss 2018, p. xxxv, n. 35.
Bibliography edit
- Tolan, John V. (2002). Saracens: Islam in the European Imagination. Columbia University Press.
- Tolan, John V. (2011). "Adelphus". In David Thomas; Alex Mallett (eds.). Christian–Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Vol. 3 (1050–1200). Brill. pp. 572–573.
- Yolles, Julian; Weiss, Jessica, eds. (2018). Medieval Latin Lives of Muhammad. Harvard University Press.