Mr Muhammad Umar Farooq

Humphrey Prideaux (1648 –1724) was a Cornish churchman and orientalist. He followed a traditional approach to the literature of European Christians of the medieval era who usually put the emergence of European Christianity as a universal divine religion in contradiction with the emergence of Islam as a "divine punishment”, seeking through this polemical method of advocacy to defend the Christian faith against its contemporary critics.

Prideaux saw Islam as the “weapon of divine wrath” and the vengeance of the Lord for the sins committed by Eastern Christians and as schism for Christianity. He also considered Islam as atheism and paganism. He felt the danger that God could send again his punishment in the shape of Muhammad PBUH for the Christians of his time.

He adopted an intensely polemical approach to the life and teachings of the prophet Muhammad SAW.

This paper will present a critical analysis of Prideaux's perception of the Prophet Muhammad SAW.