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Muhammad (PBUH): an anticlerical hero of the European Enlightenment
👉Some saw Islam as a pure form of monotheism close to philosophic Deism and the Quran as a rational paean to the Creator.
aeon.co/ideas/muhammad…
👉Some saw Islam as a pure form of monotheism close to philosophic Deism and the Quran as a rational paean to the Creator.
aeon.co/ideas/muhammad…
The US founding father Thomas Jefferson bought a copy of Sale’s translation of the Quran from a bookseller in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1765, which helped him conceive of a philosophical deism that surpassed confessional boundaries.
In Germany, the Romantic Johann Wolfgang von Goethe read a translation of Sale’s version, which helped to colour his evolving notion of Muhammad (PBUH) as an inspired poet and archetypal prophet.
Voltaire cited Sale’s translation with admiration: in his world history Essai sur les mœurs et l’esprit des nations (1756), he portrayed Muhammad (PBUH) as an inspired reformer who abolished superstitious practices and eradicated the power of corrupt clergy.
Napoleon himself, at the end of his life, wrote about Muhammad (PBUH) and defended his legacy as a ‘great man who changed the course of history’.
The idea of Muhammad (PBUH) as 1 of the world’s great legislators persisted into the 20th c. Adolph A Weinman, a German-born American sculptor, depicted Muhammad in his 1935 frieze in the main chamber of the US Supreme Court, where the Prophet takes his place among 18 lawgivers.
