The Liber Nycholay (or Book of Nicholas) is a Latin biography of Muhammad. It is an anonymous text, written in Italy in the later 13th century. Of no value as a historical source on Muhammad, it is a melding of various western Christian traditions concerning the origins of Islam written in such a way as to highlight the similarities between Islam and Catholic Christianity while satirizing the papal court.
The full title as it appears in the manuscripts is Liber Nycholay, qui dicitur Machumetus, quomodo Christianam legem subuertit et credulitatem Sarracenorum fecit, "The book of Nicholas, who is called Muhammad, about how he undermined the Christian law and framed the credulity of the Saracens". [1] It is preserved in whole or in part in two manuscripts:
Only the Paris manuscript contains the complete text. The Paris manuscript was copied in the latter half of the 14th century in Avignon. It also contains Mark of Toledo's translation of the Qur'an and the Collectio Cluniacense of Islam-related translations. [4]
The Vatican manuscript breaks off after 58 lines. The copying of the manuscript in the late 13th or early 14th century was evidently interrupted. It contains one other text, a chronicle entitled Liber de istoriis ueteribus et modernis imperatorum et pontificum romanorum. [4]
The Liber was composed in Latin in the second half of the 13th century. [5] Internal evidence points to Italy as the place of writing, [6] possibly to Rome specifically. [7] Similarities of language between it and the Liber de istoriis in the Vatican manuscript suggest that the author of the latter, Johannes Ruffus, either had access to the Liber while writing his chronicle or else was also its author. [5]
Little is known of Ruffus. He may have been a South Italian Dominican writing for King Manfred of Sicily. His chronicle shows that he had good knowledge of the city of Rome. [8] He is usually thought to have composed his chronicle in 1261–1262. Some 16th-century sources indicate that he was a Dominican from Cornwall who wrote in the last decade of the 13th century. [5]
The Liber Nycholay contains a major inconsistency in dating. Although the date expressly given for the foundation of Islam—AD 612, that is, 300 years after the baptism of Constantine I—is approximately correct, the events are also placed after the death of Pope Agapetus II, which took place in 956. [9]
Nicholas, a cardinal deacon acting as papal legate in Hispania and Barbary, is the chosen successor of Pope Agapetus. When the pope dies while Nicholas is away, the cardinals elect instead John, the cardinal of San Lorenzo in Damaso. To avenge the insult, Nicholas founds a rival religion. He writes a sacred book advocating polygamy, ablutions, alms and fasting and forbidding confession, Easter and drinking wine during the day. These new rules he supports with quotations from the Bible. [10]
Nicholas goes public with his mission at a council in Marrakesh. He redistributes church property to the poor and buttresses his prophetic claims with miracles. He appoints various officials and settles down in Baghdad, where he is murdered by Marzocco, the jealous husband of his lover Carufa. His relics are preserved in Mecca, where his followers continue to visit them. The history of his empire is briefly surveyed, including the Arab conquest of Spain (711–712) and the Arab siege of Constantinople (717–718). [10]
The Liber Nycholay blends various traditions about Muhammad. The name Nicholas is taken from the tradition that identified Muhammad with the biblical deacon Nicholas of Antioch, purported founder of Nicolaitism. [11] The cardinal, however, is clearly not intended to be the same person as the 1st-century deacon. A connection between Islam and Nicolaitism was first drawn by Paschasius Radbertus in the 9th century. [12]
From a different tradition, represented by Embrico of Mainz, the author of the Liber took the idea that Muhammad was the Patriarch Nestorius. Rather than equate the two, he incorporates the Nestorian critique of confession into Muhammad's religion. The idea that Islam originated in the West is another separate tradition, found, e.g., in Aimericus of Angoulême. [11] Of authentic Islamic custom the author had some knowledge, e.g., of ritual ablution, fasting, circumcision and Eid al-Adha. [12]
The tone of the Liber is non-vitriolic and humorous. [8] Its portrayal of Islam is conciliatory. The religion is an offshoot of Catholic Christianity. It ends by noting that Christians, Jews and Muslims will continue to fight each other despite all believing in one Creator. [11] The main purpose of the Liber was not to give an accurate account of Islam's origins, but to critique and satirize the Roman curia. [8]
The Italian historian Michele Amari argued that the text is a Ghibelline criticism of the papacy, blaming it for the rise of Islam. [13] The Spanish historian Maribel Fierro argues that the Liber was inspired by the rise of the reformist Almohads in the West. [14]
The Liber Pontificalis is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the Liber Pontificalis stopped with Pope Adrian II (867–872) or Pope Stephen V (885–891), but it was later supplemented in a different style until Pope Eugene IV (1431–1447) and then Pope Pius II (1458–1464). Although quoted virtually uncritically from the 8th to 18th centuries, the Liber Pontificalis has undergone intense modern scholarly scrutiny. The work of the French priest Louis Duchesne, and of others has highlighted some of the underlying redactional motivations of different sections, though such interests are so disparate and varied as to render improbable one popularizer's claim that it is an "unofficial instrument of pontifical propaganda."
Pope Agapetus I was the bishop of Rome from 13 May 535 to his death. His father, Gordianus, was a priest in Rome and he may have been related to two popes, Felix III and Gregory I.
Pope Nicholas III, born Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 November 1277 to his death on 22 August 1280.
A papal coronation is the formal ceremony of the placing of the papal tiara on a newly elected pope. The first recorded papal coronation was of Pope Nicholas I in 858. The most recent was the 1963 coronation of Paul VI, who soon afterwards abandoned the practice of wearing the tiara. To date, none of his successors have used the tiara, and their papal inauguration celebrations have included no coronation ceremony, although any future pope may elect to restore the use of the tiara at any point during his pontificate.
The Vatican Apostolic Archive, formerly known as the Vatican Secret Archive, is the central repository in the Vatican City of all acts promulgated by the Holy See.
A papal conclave is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a bishop of Rome, also known as the pope. Catholics consider the pope to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and the earthly head of the Catholic Church.
Dioscorus was a deacon of the Alexandrian and the Roman church from 506. In a disputed election following the death of Pope Felix IV, the majority of electors picked him to be pope, in spite of Pope Felix's wishes that Boniface II should succeed him. However, Dioscorus died less than a month after the election, allowing Boniface to be consecrated pope and Dioscorus to be branded an antipope.
The Basilica Papale di San Lorenzo fuori le mura is a Roman Catholic papal minor basilica and parish church, located in Rome, Italy. The Basilica is one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome and one of the five "papal basilicas", each of which was assigned to the care of a Latin Church patriarchate. The basilica was assigned to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The basilica is the shrine of the tomb of its namesake, Lawrence, one of the first seven deacons of Rome who was martyred in 258. Many other saints and Pope Pius IX are also buried at the Basilica, which is the centre of a large and ancient burial complex.
The Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere ; English: Our Lady in Trastevere) is a titular minor basilica in the Trastevere district of Rome, and one of the oldest churches of Rome. The basic floor plan and wall structure of the church date back to the 340s, and much of the structure to 1140–43. The first sanctuary was built in 221 and 227 by Pope Callixtus I and later completed by Pope Julius I. The church has large areas of important mosaics from the late 13th century by Pietro Cavallini.
A number of biographies of Muhammad were written in Latin during the 9th to 13th centuries.
Walter of Compiègne was a French poet who lived in the middle of the 12th century and was a monk at Saint Martin's at Tours. He composed a Latin biography of Muhammad in elegiac couplets.
Boso was an Italian prelate and Cardinal of the Roman Catholic church.
Tultusceptru de libro domni Metobii is a short Latin biography of Muḥammad written in the 9th or 10th century in the Iberian Peninsula. It is a polemical text designed to show that Islam is a false religion and Muḥammad the unwitting dupe of the devil. It is known from a single copy in the Codex of Roda. Although the codex was compiled in the late 10th century, the Tultusceptru was added between about 1030 and 1060.
The Storia de Mahometh is a short anonymous polemical Latin biography of Muḥammad written from a Christian perspective, probably in al-Andalus between about 750 and 850. It contains the earliest known translation into Latin of any portion of the Qurʾān.
The Book of Muḥammad's Ladder is a first-person account of the Islamic prophet Muḥammad's night journey (isrāʾ) and ascent to heaven (miʿrāj), translated into Latin and Old French from traditional Arabic materials. Although presented as Muḥammad's words and purportedly recorded by Muḥammad's cousin Ibn ʿAbbās, the work is in fact spurious and dates to the 13th century.
The Kitāb al-wāḍiḥ bi-l-ḥaqq, known in Latin as the Liber denudationis, is a Copto-Arabic apologetic treatise against Islam. It was written by a Muslim convert to Christianity, Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ, around 1010 in Fāṭimid Egypt. Its purpose is to provide a refutation of Islam on the basis of the Qurʾān and the ḥadīth (tradition). It was translated into Latin in the 13th century, probably in Toledo. It had much greater influence in translation than in its original language.
The Vita Machometi is a Latin biography of Muḥammad written by a certain Adelphus in the early to mid-12th century. Nothing is known of the author but what he reveals about himself in the Vita. This includes that he had heard the Muslim call to prayer and had conversed with a Greek about Islam while staying in Antioch on a return trip from Jerusalem. Taken together, these facts suggest that he may have been a participant in the First Crusade. He seems to have had a biblical and classical education. He may have been a Benedictine abbot.
The Corpus Cluniacense or Corpus Islamolatinum, sometimes erroneously the Corpus Toledanum, is a collection of Latin writings about Islam compiled in 1142–1143. At its centre are translations from Arabic of five Islamic works, including the Qurʾān. The corpus was commissioned by Abbot Peter the Venerable of Cluny during a trip to Spain. The team of translators was led by Robert of Ketton, who translated the Qurʾān. The other translators were Herman of Carinthia, Peter of Toledo and a Muslim named Muḥammad. They were assisted in their Latin by Peter of Poitiers.
Abū al-Ḥasan Bakrī is the purported author of several Islamic works in Arabic, most notably a biography of Muḥammad entitled Kitāb al-anwār. There is no consensus regarding his historicity or his floruit.
Where Wicked Muhammad Came From is an anonymous Latin biography of Muhammad from the late 13th century. Although it contains some authentic Islamic elements, it consists mostly of legendary material or reworkings intended to ridicule and denounce Islam and its founder.