Bambilor,thierno,amadou djibril

This knowledge about Muhammad's life in the Latin theological texts was not reflected in the popular literature of the Middle Ages where Muhammad was viewed as an idol or one of the heathen gods.^[14] Some medieval Christians said he had died in 666, alluding to the number of the beast, instead of 632;^[173] others changed his name from Muhammad to Mahound, the "devil incarnate".^[174] Bernard Lewis writes "The development of the concept of Mahound started with considering Muhammad as a kind of demon or false god worshipped with Apollyon and Termagant in an unholy trinity."^[175] A later medieval works, Livre dou Tresor represents Muhammad as a former monk and cardinal.^[14] Dante's Divine Comedy (Canto XXVIII), puts Muhammad, together with Ali, in Hell "among the sowers of discord and the schismatics, being lacerated by devils again and again."^[14]

After the reformation, Muhammad was no longer viewed as a god or idol, but as a cunning, ambitious, and self-seeking impostor.^[175][14] Guillaume Postel was among the first to present a more positive view of Muhammad.^[14] Boulainvilliers described Muhammad as a gifted political leader and a just lawmaker.^[14] Gottfried Leibniz praised Muhammad because "he did not deviate from the natural religion".^[14] Friedrich Bodenstedt (1851) described Muhammad as "an ominous destroyer and a prophet of murder."^[14] Later Western works, many of which, from the 18th century onward, distanced themselves from the polemical histories of earlier Christian authors. These more historically oriented treatments, which generally reject the prophethood of Muhammad, are coloured by the Western philosophical and theological framework of their authors. Many of these studies reflect much historical research, and most pay more attention to human, social, economic, and political factors than to religious, theological, and spiritual matters.^[19]

It was not until the latter part of the 20th century that Western authors combined rigorous scholarship as understood in the modern West with empathy toward the subject at hand and, especially, awareness of the religious and spiritual realities involved in the study of the life of the founder of a major world religion.^[19] According to Watt and Richard Bell, recent writers have generally dismissed the idea that Muhammad deliberately deceived his followers, arguing that Muhammad