Walter of Compiègne was a French poet who lived in the middle of the 12th century and was a monk at Saint Martin's at Tours. He composed a

Latin biography of Muhammad A number of Latin 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 influence. All other Latin biograp ...

elegiac couplets The elegiac couplet is a poetic form used by Greek lyric poets for a variety of themes usually of smaller scale than the epic. Roman poets, particularly Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid, adopted the same form in Latin many years later. ...

. The story of Mahomet reached Walter by oral tradition, according to the information he himself provides. Its source was a young

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

who was brought to France after the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ru ...

by a French knight, and who converted to Christianity. He narrated the life of Mahomet to Pagan of Sens, the abbot of . Paganus told it to Warner, abbot of the monastery at Tours, and Warner told it to Walter of Compiègne. (''Poetic Pastimes on Muhammad'') may be given as its title. The poem begins:

Notes

Bibliography

*F. J. E. Raby, ''A History of Secular Latin Poetry in the Middle Ages'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934. ) vol. 2 pp. 82–83. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Walter of Compiegne French poets 12th-century Latin writers Cultural depictions of Muhammad 12th-century deaths French Christian monks Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown French male poets