De Machometo ('On Muḥammad')[1] is a brief anonymous Latin tract on the life of Muḥammad from a Christian point of view. It begins in the reign of Pope Boniface IV (608–615).[2] Its account is cobbled together from a variety of sources, including the fifth dialogue of Petrus Alphonsi's Dialogi in quibus impiae Judaeorum confutantur, the Corozan legend and possibly the Libellus in partibus transmarinis de Machometi fallaciis from Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum historiale.[3][4] The composite account is very similar to the account of Muḥammad found in the Golden Legend.[5]
It is known from at least four manuscripts:
Copenhagen, Royal Danish Library, Acc. 2011/5, ff. 193r–194r (pp. 379–381), from the late 14th century[6]
Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.1.17, ff. 79rb–79rv (incomplete), from c. 1400[5][7]
London, British Library, MS Royal 13.E.IX, ff. 93r–94r,[4][5] from c. 1395–1425[8]
London, British Library, MS Sloane 289, ff. 92v–95v,[4] from the mid-15th century[9]
De Machometo follows William of Tripoli's De statu Sarracenorum in both the Copenhagen and Cambridge manuscripts.[10] The text has never been edited.[11]
^This is the short title used in Bolton 2009 and Wood 2022, p. 122. The full title in the Copenhagen manuscript is Tractatus quomodo Machometus decepit Saracenos secundum diuersas opiniones ('a treatise about how Muḥammad deceived the Saracens according to different opinions'), which appears at the beginning and in the explicit.
^Whitelock 2005, p. xxiii n45: the incipit is Tempore Bonifacie pape iiii Romani pontificis.
DeMachometo ('On Muḥammad') is a brief anonymous Latin tract on the life of Muḥammad from a Christian point of view. It begins in the reign of Pope Boniface...
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and certain Islamic practices. De statu Saracenorum (On the Realm of the Saracens) (1273), continues Notitia deMachometo and discusses conversion of Muslims...
works in Latin are attributed to William: Notitia deMachometo ('Information concerning Muḥammad') De statu Saracenorum ('On the realm of the Saracens')...
Tripoli, Gesta Machometi (that is, De statu Sarracenorum) Anonymous, De Machometo Prophecies 26 prophetic texts in prose and verse all associated with and...