Where Wicked Muhammad Came From

Where Wicked Muhammad Came From (Latin: Qualiter iniquus Mahometus venit) 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.

Title

In the single manuscript copy of the work, it begins with the incipit:

In the introduction to their Latin edition and English translation, Julian Yolles and Jessica Weiss refer to the text as Where Wicked Muhammad Came From, or Qualiter for short. Using a different part of the incipit for a short title, John Tolan calls it Iniquus Mahometus ('deceitful Muḥammad'). Fernando González Muñoz calls it the Vita Mahometi ('life of Muhammad') of the Pisan manuscript, while others simply identify it as the "Pisan manuscript" or "Pisan text".

Synopsis

In the days of the apostles there was a man by the name of Nicolas, who was false and wicked in every way; nonetheless, he was one of the seven deacons, just as the traitor Judas had been one of Christ's disciples.

Nicolas sought to succeed Pope Clement I. Failing this, he tried to avenge himself on the church by preaching that wives and property should be held in common. He was excommunicated as a heretic and imprisoned in a tower, where he died of hunger and thirst. He had a disciple, called Maurus "both by name and ethnicity" (i.e., a Moor), to whom he taught necromancy and multiple languages. Maurus fled Rome by ship for Arabia after his master's arrest.