The ''Romance of Muhammad'' (French ''Li romans de Mahon'' or ''Roman de Mahomet'') is an

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...

romance about the life of

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

in octosyllabic couplets. It was written by Alexandre du Pont in 1258 in

Laon Laon () is a city in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. History Early history The holy district of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held strategic importance. In ...

based on the earlier ''Otia de Machomete'', a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

poem by Walter of Compiègne. At 1,996 verses, it is almost twice as long as the ''Otia''. It is preserved in a single manuscript in Paris,

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

, fonds français 1553, from the late 13th century. The ''Romance'' can be broadly divided into six sections: Muhammad's education and meeting with the Christian hermit; his courtship and marriage; the private confirmation of his prophetic mission; public announcement of his prophethood and issuing of the law; the war with Persia; and Muhammad's death. It is written for a Christian lay audience. It is an essentially fictional account designed to ridicule Muhammad, although its depiction of him as "a clever scoundrel, eloquent suitor, and respected leader is not wholly unsympathetic." It contains numerous inaccuracies and anachronisms, such as

Greek fire Greek fire was an incendiary weapon used by the Eastern Roman Empire beginning . Used to set fire to enemy ships, it consisted of a combustible compound emitted by a flame-throwing weapon. Some historians believe it could be ignited on contact w ...

and ''

jongleur A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...

s''. It diverges from the ''Otia'' in only a few cases, which demonstrate Alexandre's familiarity with the '' Apology of al-Kindi''. The limited diffusion of the work suggests that its content was too unusual for its intended audience. Nothing is known of Alexandre du Pont beyond what he reveals about himself: his name and the date and place of his work. He does exhibit a tendency to sermonize and should perhaps be associated with the cathedral school of Laon.

Notes

Bibliography

* * {{Depictions of Muhammad Old French texts Epic poems in French 13th-century poems Cultural depictions of Muhammad