Early European polemic against Islam and the Prophet

الطعون الأوروبية القديمة في الإسلام والنبي

In the second chapter of his book, Ghallab presents examples of early European writings that he describes as biased and ignorant: the poem “Roland”, which claims that Muslims worship a trinity of Muhammad, Apollo and Termagant; the poem “Jerusalem”, which describes a golden statue of the Prophet ﷺ on an elephant; and a narrative that permits a woman to have several husbands ^{1 2 3}. He notes that some scholars of later centuries, such as Pascal, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Renan, Casanova and Dermenghem, made errors concerning Islam ⁴, and he holds that Voltaire used the Prophet as a cover for attacking the founders of all religions ^{4 5}. Ghallab states that serious study of the texts of Islam began in the nineteenth century ⁶. These are Ghallab's judgements and his reporting, and each judgement is attributed to him.