Latin Poetic Stories About Muhammad and Their Stylistic Network

Abstract

The Latin verse lives of Mohammed appear suddenly between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, developing in a novelistic direction the scant information found in the prose biographies of the Prophet written between the eight and tenth centuries. The poems of Embrico of Mainz (saec. XI/XII) and Walter of Compiègne (saec. XII) go beyond the educational and apologetic needs raised by the crusader culture and show a special attention to the structure of the narrative. The literary climate of the twelfth century combines tenth-century poetic hagiography, the Arab tales of Peter Alfonsi, and eleventh-century novels to develop a relatively homogeneous narrative about Mohammed, which in the period of the Crusades is accompanied by more or less imaginary elements and subsequent rewriting of the main episodes in the story. Still, only versification, which reflects the influence of both the satirical style in vogue from the twelfth century onwards and its expressive naturalistic and erotic lexicon, allows the European literature of the earlier Middle Ages to transform the figure of Muhammad into a brilliant and lucky picaro, and Islam into an imaginary republic of sexual liberation.