Reiteration of Prophet Muhammad’s Myths in Biddulph and Cartwright’s Travelogues

Abstract

In the early stage of Islam, Prophet Muhammad in the eyes of Meccans was an arch enemy of their lucrative business and a great threat to the religion of their forefathers. To stop his monotheism, they launched their vicious campaign against him, and thus they called him an enraptured poet and ambitious self-seeker; however, the prophet’s peaceful victory over them resulted in the cessation of their hostilities, but this was not the end of animosity towards him. Later when the Muslim Turks established their empire and colonized parts of Europe, and presented unprecedented military and religious challenge for the Westerners, they undertook their bitter campaign against the prophet. Antipathy to him in the West permeated into literature, polemic writings, and travelogues as well. In this regard the current article argues that in the seventeenth century Biddulph and Cartwright due to clinging to their cultural baggage reiterated the calumnies of their predecessors against the prophet in their travelogues despite living among Muslims in Aleppo.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n1s1p251