The Image of Islam in Early Christendom

renowned for his scholarship, recounts a tale from a Latin manuscript a monk wrote. According to this account, upon Muhammad’s death, his followers anxiously awaited the descent of angels to carry away his body. However, dogs appeared instead and consumed it. This story was believed to be the origin of the annual slaughter of a significant number of dogs by Muslims. Living in the Islamic stronghold of Spain, Eulogius would have easily recognized the only element of truth in the entire fable: the Muslim perception of dogs as unclean animals. Eulogius was a prominent figure in a fervent religious movement that advocated voluntary martyrdom at the hands of Muslims, a fate he ultimately experienced in 859 under the order of the Umayyad caliph. From Latin, the story of the dogs consuming Muhammad’s body found its way into French literature. In an early French epic poem called “La Chanson de Roland”, both swine and dogs are depicted as devouring Mahumet (Muhammad). The swine version gained popularity as it provided a simplistic explanation for the Koranic prohibition on pork consumption. Another variant of the story suggests that the swine took their opportunity while the victim was unconscious during an epileptic fit. Yet another version substitutes drunkenness for epilepsy, serving the dual purpose of explaining the Koranic injunction against alcohol consumption. In a later edition, Muhammad’s coffin was depicted as suspended in mid-air between heaven and earth. This