Prophet Muhammad in French and English Literature

Ahmad Gunny is Fellow and Senior Associate at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. His works include Voltaire and English literature (1979), Images of Islam in Eighteenth-Century Writings (1996), Perceptions of Islam in European Writings (2004), and critical editions of Voltaire's miscellaneous texts, including 'De l'Alcoran et de Mahomet' in the Complete Works of Voltaire. In 2009 he received the award of Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Academiques from the French Government.

Ahmad Gunny has been a pioneer in the study of French and European literary and theological representations of Islam in the modern period. Thanks to his acclaimed critical studies, as well as to his definitive editions of Voltaire, students and scholars alike have found in his work new and important directions for research.A" Professor Nabil Matar, University of Minnesota and author of Islam in Britain, 1558-1685. Ahmad Gunny's fresh approach to the image of Muhammad in French literature of the eighteenth century complicates the extant understanding of the subject. Rather than trying to expose once again a Western prejudice against Islam, he explores the many different views of Muhammad that existed during the period of Enlightenment. What results is a more nuanced and sophisticated study of this important topic.A" Francois Zabbal, Institute du Monde Arabe, Paris

• PrefaceIntroductionChapter 1 - Muhammad in Christian thought (1650-1750)Chapter 2 - The imagined Muhammad from Marana to VoltaireChapter 3 - Muhammad in French enlightenmentChapter 4 - Muhammad in the age of empire to 1900Chapter 5 - Sympathy and scepticism, 1900 to the presentConclusionBibliographyIndex