Mohammedan
Mohammedan (also spelled Muhammadan, Mahommedan, Mahomedan or Mahometan) is a Western term for a follower of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.[1] As an archaic English language term, it is used as both a noun and an adjective, meaning belonging or relating to, either Muhammad or the religion, doctrines, institutions and practices that he established.[2][3] The word was formerly common in western usage, but the terms Muslim and Islamic are more common today.
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[edit] Etymology
The OED cites 1663 as the first recorded usage of the English term, along with the older term Mahometan that dates back to at least 1529. The English term is derived from New Latin Muhammedanus, while Wyclif has Macamethe (c.1380).
In Christian Western Europe, down to the 13th century or so, there was a mistaken belief that Muhammad had either been a heretical Christian or that he was a god worshipped by Muslims.[4] Some works of Medieval European literature referred to Muslims as "pagans" or by sobriquets such as the paynim foe. Depictions, such as those in the Song of Roland, depict Muslims praying to a variety of "idols", including Apollo, Lucifer, Termagant,[5] and Mahound. When the Knights Templar were being tried for heresy, reference was often made to their worship of a demon Baphomet, which was notable, by implication, for its similarity to Muhammad's name when transliterated in to Latin, "Mahomet", that was used by contemporary Christian authors, given that Latin would be for another 500 years the language of scholarship and erudition for most of Europe.[4]
These and other variations on the theme were all set in the "temper of the times" of the Muslim-Christian conflict as Medieval Europe was becoming aware of its great enemy in the wake of the quickfire success of the Muslims through a series of conquests shortly after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, as well as the lack of real information in the West of the mysterious east.[6]
[edit] Current usage
The term has been largely superseded by Muslim, Moslem or Islamic, but was commonly used only in Western literature until at least the mid-1960s. (See for instance the second edition of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage by HW Fowler, revised by Ernest Gowers (Oxford, 1965)). Muslim is more commonly used today than Moslem, and the term Mohammedan is widely considered archaic or in some cases even offensive.[7]
[edit] Other uses
al-Muḥammadīya ('the Muhammadians' or 'the Muhammadans') are members of sects regarded as heretical by mainstream Islam[citation needed]. In Indonesia, Muhammadiyah is the name of a Sunnite reforming movement, which has adapted Western institutions, i.e. Boy Scouts, to Islamic ends).[8]
[edit] Criticism
Many Muslims have objected to the term,[9] saying that the term was not used by Muhammad himself or his earlier followers, and that the religion teaches worshiping Allah alone (cf. shirk and tawhid) and not Muhammad. They say that "Mohammedan" is thus a misnomer.
[edit] See also
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Look up Mohammedan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
[edit] References
- ^ JOHN BOWKER. "Muhammadans." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 21 Jun. 2010 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
- ^ -Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc.
- ^ Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, edited by Noah Porter, published by G & C. Merriam Co., 1913
- ^ a b Kenneth Meyer Setton (July 1, 1992). "Western Hostility to Islam and Prophecies of Turkish Doom". DIANE Publishing. ISBN 0-87169-201-5. pg 4-15 - "Some Europeans believed that Moslems worshipped Mohammed as a god,[...]" (4)
- ^ Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, "Termagant
- ^ Watt, Montgomery,Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford University Press, 1961. fromm pg. 229
- ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition (2000) annotates the term as offensive. The OED has "its use is now widely seen as depreciatory or offensive", referring to English Today no. 39 (1992): "The term Mohammedan [...] is considered offensive or pejorative to most Muslims since it makes human beings central in their religion, a position which only Allah may occupy". Other dictionaries, such as Merriam-Webster, do not label the term as offensive.
- ^ Bowker, John. "Muhammadans." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 21 Jun. 2010 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
- ^ see e.g. Mohammedanism a Misnomer, by R. Bosworth Smith, Paul Tice; Definition of Mohammedanism, Farlex Encyclopedia; What does Islam mean?, Islamic Bulletin
