The ''Vita Machometi'' is a

Latin biography of Muḥammad A number of Middle Latin, Latin Life of Muhammad, biographies of Muhammad were written during the 9th to 13th centuries. Overview The earliest Latin biographies originated in Spain before the mid-9th century. They had a limited circulation and inf ...

written by a certain Adelphus in the early to mid-12th century. Nothing is known of the author but what he reveals about himself in the ''Vita''. 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. Taken together, these facts suggest that he may have been a participant in the First Crusade. He seems to have had a biblical and classical education. He may have been a Benedictine abbot.According to , the 15th-century writer

Johannes Trithemius Johannes Trithemius (; 1 February 1462 – 13 December 1516), born Johann Heidenberg, was a German Benedictine abbot and a polymath who was active in the German Renaissance as a lexicographer, chronicler, cryptographer, and occultist. He is consi ...

cited a certain ''Contra Sarracenos liber'' ('Book against the Saracens') written by a Benedictine abbot named Adelphus, which may be the ''Vita''. The ''Vita'' is a polemical account of Muḥammad's life based, so Adelphus claims, on the account of the Greek from Antioch. 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". 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.; . They create a new holy book—the Qurʾān—by corrupting the Bible, although Adelphus does not describe their doctrines in detail. 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. While out hunting one day, Muḥammad is attacked and eaten by pigs, which is why Muslims refuse to eat pork. The ''Vita Machometi'' contains many parallels to the 11th-century Latin life of Muḥammad by

Embrico of Mainz Embrico of Mainz (''Embricho Moguntinus'') is the author of the ''Vita Mahumeti'', a Latin biography of Muhammad. The text is in rhyming leonine hexameters, extending to 1,148 lines. It was modelled on the verse hagiography of contemporaries such ...

. The murder of Muḥammad's tutor is also found in the account of

William of Tripoli William of Tripoli ( 1254–1273) was a Dominican friar active as a Christian missionary, missionary and papal nuncio in the Holy Land. He wrote two works about Islam, towards which he displayed an unusually Irenicism, irenic attitude for his time. ...

. Like

Guibert of Nogent Guibert de Nogent (c. 1055 – 1124) was a Benedictine historian, theologian and author of autobiographical memoirs. Guibert was relatively unknown in his own time, going virtually unmentioned by his contemporaries. He has only recently caught the ...

, Adelphus portrays Islam as the latest in a succession of

Christian heresies Heresy in Christianity denotes the formal denial or doubt of a core doctrine of the Christian faith as defined by one or more of the Christian churches. In Western Christianity, heresy most commonly refers to those beliefs which were declared to ...

arising in the east, like monophysitism and

Nestorianism Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian ...

. In addition to these western influences, he includes material borrowed from eastern traditions. The ''Vita Machometi'' was not widely read. It is known from a single manuscript of the mid-12th century, now in the and catalogued as MS 1897 (18). The manuscript also contains the '' Historia de preliis'' and Berno of Reichenau's tonary.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * {{refend 12th-century Latin literature 12th-century Christian texts Biographies of Muhammad Biographies in Latin