Editing Christianity and Islam (section)

==Early and Medieval Christian writers on Islam and Muhammad==
{{See also|Medieval Christian views on Muhammad}}
[[File:Mohammed_by_gustave_dore.jpg|thumb|[[Dante]], a Christian, and [[Virgil]] looking at Muhammad who suffers in hell as a [[schismatic (religion)|schismatic]], an illustration of the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' by [[Gustave Doré]]. During the Middle Ages, Islam was often seen as a Christological heresy and Muhammad as a false prophet.]]

===John of Damascus===
In 746, [[John of Damascus]] (sometimes St. John of Damascus) wrote the ''Fount of Knowledge'' part two of which is entitled ''Heresies in Epitome: How They Began and Whence They Drew Their Origin''.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite web|url=http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/stjohn_islam.aspx|title=St. John of Damascus: Critique of Islam|website=orthodoxinfo.com}}</ref> In this work, John makes extensive reference to the Quran and, in John's opinion, its failure to live up to even the most basic scrutiny. The work is not exclusively concerned with the ''Ismaelites'' (a name for the Muslims as they claimed to have descended from Ismael) but all heresy. The ''Fount of Knowledge'' references several suras directly often with apparent incredulity.

{{Blockquote|From that time to the present a false prophet named Mohammed has appeared in their midst. This man, after having chanced upon the Old and New Testaments and likewise, it seems, having conversed with an [[Arianism|Arian]] monk, devised his own [[heresy]]. Then, having insinuated himself into the good graces of the people by a show of seeming piety, he gave out that a certain book had been sent down to him from heaven. He had set down some ridiculous compositions in this book of his and he gave it to them as an object of veneration. ... There are many other extraordinary and quite ridiculous things in this book which he boasts was sent down to him from God. But when we ask: 'And who is there to testify that God gave him the book? And which of the prophets foretold that such a prophet would rise up?' – they are at a loss. And we remark that Moses received the Law on [[Biblical Mount Sinai|Mount Sinai]], with God appearing in the sight of all the people in cloud, and fire, and darkness, and storm. And we say that all the Prophets from Moses on down foretold the coming of Christ and how Christ God (and incarnate Son of God) was to come and to be crucified and die and rise again, and how He was to be the judge of the living and dead. Then, when we say: 'How is it that this prophet of yours did not come in the same way, with others bearing witness to him? And how is it that God did not in your presence present this man with the book to which you refer, even as He gave the Law to Moses, with the people looking on and the mountain smoking, so that you, too, might have certainty?' – they answer that God does as He pleases. 'This,' we say, 'We know, but we are asking how the book came down to your prophet.' Then they reply that the book came down to him while he was asleep.<ref name="auto2"/>}}

===Theophanes the Confessor===
[[Theophanes the Confessor]] (died c. 822) wrote a series of chronicles (284 onwards and 602–813 AD)<ref>[http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=2098 Theophanes in English, on Mohammed] gives an excerpt with all pertinent text as translated by Cyril Mango</ref><ref>The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor (Byzantine and Near Eastern History AD 284–813). Translated with introduction and commentary by Cyril Mango and Geoffrey Greatrex, Oxford 1997. An updated version of the roger-pearse.com citation.</ref><ref>[http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/1938.html The Chronicle of Theophanes Anni Mundi 6095–6305 (A.D. 602–813)] a more popularised but less rigorously studied translation of Theophanes chronicles</ref> based initially on those of the better known [[George Syncellus]]. Theophanes reports about Muhammad thus:
{{Blockquote|At the beginning of his advent the misguided Jews thought he was the Messiah. ... But when they saw him eating camel meat, they realized that he was not the one they thought him to be, ... those wretched men taught him illicit things directed against us, Christians, and remained with him.}}

{{Blockquote|Whenever he came to [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] he consorted with Jews and Christians and sought from them certain scriptural matters. He was also afflicted with epilepsy. When [[Khadijah bint Khuwaylid|his wife]] became aware of this, she was greatly distressed, inasmuch as she, a noblewoman, had married a man such as he, who was not only poor, but also an epileptic. He tried deceitfully to placate her by saying, 'I keep seeing a vision of a certain angel called [[Gabriel]], and being unable to bear his sight, I faint and fall down.'}}

===Niketas===
In the work ''A History of Christian-Muslim Relations,''<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VMOU3UoNysQC|title=A History of Christian-Muslim Relations|first=Hugh|last=Goddard|date=1 January 2000|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9780748610099}}</ref> Hugh Goddard mentions both John of Damascus and Theophanes and goes on to consider the relevance of [[Niketas Byzantios]] {{clarify|date=November 2010}} who formulated replies to letters on behalf of Emperor [[Michael III]] (r. 842–867). Goddard sums up Niketas' view:
{{Blockquote|In short, Muhammad was an ignorant charlatan who succeeded by imposture in seducing the ignorant barbarian [[Arab people|Arabs]] into accepting a gross, blaspheming, idolatrous, demoniac religion, which is full of futile errors, intellectual enormities, doctrinal errors and moral aberrations.}}

Goddard further argues that Niketas demonstrates in his work a knowledge of the entire Quran, including an extensive knowledge of [[Surah|Suras]] 2–18. Niketas' account from behind the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] frontier apparently set a strong precedent for later writing both in tone and points of argument.

===11th century===
Knowledge and depictions of Islam continued to be varied within the Christian West during the 11th century. For instance, the author(s) of the 11th century ''[[Song of Roland]]'' evidently had little actual knowledge of Islam. As depicted in this epic poem, Muslims erect statues of Mohammed and worship them, and Mohammed is part of an "Unholy Trinity" together with the Classical Greek [[Abaddon|Apollyon]] and [[Termagant]], a completely fictional deity. This view, evidently confusing Islam with the pre-Christian Graeco-Roman Religion, appears to reflect misconceptions prevalent in Western Christian society at the time.

On the other hand, ecclesiastic writers such as [[Amatus of Montecassino]] or [[Geoffrey Malaterra]] in [[County of Apulia and Calabria|Norman Southern Italy]], who occasionally lived among Muslims themselves, would depict at times Muslims in a negative way but would depict equally any other (ethnic) group that was opposed to the Norman rule such as [[Byzantine Greeks]] or [[Lombards|Italian Lombards]]. Often the depictions would depend on context: when writing about neutral events, Muslims would be called according to geographical terms such as "Saracens" or "Sicilians, when reporting events where Muslims came into conflict with Normans, Muslims would be called "pagans" or "infidels".<ref name="Smit">{{cite journal |last1=Smit |first1=Timothy |title=Pagans and Infidels, Saracens and Sicilians: Identifying Muslims in the Eleventh-Century Chronicles of Norman Italy |journal=The Haskin Society Journal |date=2009 |volume=21 |pages=87–112}}</ref>

Similarities were occasionally acknowledged such as by [[Pope Gregory VII]] wrote in a letter to the [[Hammadid dynasty|Hammadid]] emir [[Nasir ibn Alnas|an-Nasir]] that both Christians and Muslims "worship and confess the same God though in diverse forms and daily praise".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Emerton |first1=Ephraim (trslt.) |title=The correspondence of Pope Gregory VII : selected letters from the Registrum |date=1979 |publisher=Octagon Books |location=New York |isbn=0374925658 |url=https://archive.org/details/correspondenceof0000cath/mode/2up |access-date=10 December 2022}}</ref>

===''The Divine Comedy''===
In [[Dante Alighieri]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]]'',  Muhammad is in the ninth ditch of [[Malebolge]], the eighth realm, designed for those who have caused schism; specifically, he was placed among the Sowers of Religious Discord.  Muhammad is portrayed as split in half, with his entrails hanging out, representing his status as a [[heresiarch]] (Canto 28).

This scene is frequently shown in illustrations of the ''Divine Comedy''. Muhammad is represented in a 15th-century [[fresco]] ''[[Last Judgment]]'' by Giovanni da Modena and drawing on Dante, in the [[San Petronio Basilica]] in [[Bologna]],<ref name=fresco>{{cite news|url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,11711,742914,00.html|title=Al-Qaida plot to blow up Bologna church fresco|date=2002-06-24|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|author=Philip Willan}}</ref> as well as in artwork by [[Salvador Dalí]], [[Auguste Rodin]], [[William Blake]], and [[Gustave Doré]].<ref name=Chronicle>{{cite web|url=http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/11/MNGRCH6UQK1.DTL|title=What's behind Muslim cartoon outrage|date=2006-02-11|work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]|author=Ayesha Akram}}</ref>