Photo : @DR
The Historians' Muhammad: A Muhammad of the Enlightenment, the Prophet in the writings of European authors of the 17th and 18th centuries
History buffs and curious minds, here is a rare opportunity to uncover how 17th and 18th-century European authors reshaped the figure of the Prophet for their own political battles. Far from a dry lecture, this session reveals the unexpected ways Islam became a mirror for debates about power, religion, and revolution in the West. Join a renowned scholar to demystify these shifting historical representations.
Institut des Cultures d'Islam (Paris 18th)
About
This initiative is based on the collective work The Historians' Muhammad (Cerf, 2025), which brings together the work of around fifty international specialists on Muhammad, prophet of Islam. Based on Islamic and non-Islamic sources, their research intersects disciplines in a historical approach. They highlight the plurality of traditions, interpretations, and representations linked to Muhammad over the centuries, within varied cultural and intellectual contexts.
For this second lecture, John Tolan, co-director of The Historians' Muhammad with Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, explores the figure of the Prophet in the writings of Enlightenment authors in the West.
In 1649, the English Civil War under Oliver Cromwell led to the execution of King Charles I; that same year, the first English translation of the Quran was published in London. For some royalists, the two events were linked: they depicted Cromwell as a "new Muhammad" threatening the moral and religious foundations of the nation. Conversely, many 18th-century English and French authors used the Muslim prophet as a tool against the omnipotent and corrupt Anglican and Catholic Churches. Muhammad, considered an impostor or a reformer, became central to European debates on the relationships between Church, monarchy, and the people.
About the speaker
John Tolan is a specialist in cultural and religious contacts between the Arab and Latin worlds in the Middle Ages. Trained at Yale, Chicago, and the EHESS, he has taught at universities in America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. He is currently professor emeritus of history at the University of Nantes. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including Mahomet l’européen : une histoire des représentations du Prophète en Occident (Albin Michel 2018) and Nouvelle histoire de l’islam (Tallandier 2022). He co-directed, with Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, the collective work Le Mahomet des historiens (Le Cerf, 2025).
