ritable 

genetic disorders have been identified in cats, many similar to human inborn errors of

metabolism.[170] The high level of similarity among the metabolism of mammals allows many of these
feline diseases to be diagnosed using genetic tests that were originally developed for use in
humans, as well as the use of cats as animal models in the study of the human diseases.[171]
[172]
 Diseases affecting domestic cats include acute infections, parasitic infestations, injuries, and
chronic diseases such as kidney disease, thyroid disease, and arthritis. Vaccinations are available
for many infectious diseases, as are treatments to eliminate parasites such as worms, ticks, and
fleas.[173]

Ecology
Habitats

A tabby cat in snowy weather

The domestic cat is a cosmopolitan species and occurs across much of the world.[59] It is adaptable
and now present on all continents except Antarctica, and on 118 of the 131 main groups of islands,
even on the isolated Kerguelen Islands.[174][175] Due to its ability to thrive in almost any terrestrial
habitat, it is among the world's most invasive species.[176] It lives on small islands with no human
inhabitants.[177] Feral cats can live in forests, grasslands, tundra, coastal areas, agricultural land,
scrublands, urban areas, and wetlands.[178]
The unwantedness that leads to the domestic cat being treated as an invasive species is twofold. On
one hand, as it is little altered from the wildcat, it can readily interbreed with the wildcat.
This hybridization poses a danger to the genetic distinctiveness of some wildcat populations,
particularly in Scotland and Hungary, possibly also the Iberian Peninsula, and where protected
natural areas are close to human-dominated landscapes, such as Kruger National Park in South
Africa.[179][56] On the other hand, and perhaps more obviously, its introduction to places where no
native felines are present contributes to the decline of native species.[180]

Ferality
Main article: Feral cat
Feral farm cat

Feral cats are domestic cats that were born in or have reverted to a wild state. They are unfamiliar
with and wary of humans and roam freely in urban and rural areas.[10] The numbers of feral cats is not
known, but estimates of the United States feral population range from 25 to 60 million.[10] Feral cats
may live alone, but most are found in large colonies, which occupy a specific territory and are usually
associated with a source of food.[181] Famous feral cat colonies are found in Rome around
the Colosseum and Forum Romanum, with cats at some of these sites being fed and given medical
attention by volunteers.[182]
Public attitudes toward feral cats vary widely, from seeing them as free-ranging pets to regarding
them as vermin.[183]
Some feral cats can be successfully socialized and 're-tamed' for adoption; young cats, especially
kittens[184] and cats that have had prior experience and contact with humans are the most receptive to
these efforts.

Impact on wildlife
Main article: Cat predation on wildlife
On islands, birds can contribute as much as 60% of a cat's diet.[185] In nearly all cases, the cat cannot
be identified as the sole cause for reducing the numbers of island birds, and in some instances,
eradication of cats has caused a "mesopredator release" effect;[186] where the suppression of top
carnivores creates an abundance of smaller predators that cause a severe decline in their shared
prey. Domestic cats are a contributing factor to the decline of many species, a factor that has
ultimately led, in some cases, to extinction. The South Island piopio, Chatham rail,[144] and the New
Zealand merganser[187] are a few from a long list, with the most extreme case being the
flightless Lyall's wren, which was driven to extinction only a few years after its discovery.[188][189] One
feral cat in New Zealand killed 102 New Zealand lesser short-tailed bats in seven days.[190] In the US,
feral and free-ranging domestic cats kill an estimated 6.3 – 22.3 billion mammals annually.[142]
In Australia, the impact of cats on mammal populations is even greater than the impact of habitat
loss.[191] More than one million reptiles are killed by feral cats each day, representing 258 species.
[192]
 Cats have contributed to the extinction of the Navassa curly-tailed lizard and Chioninia coctei.[180]

Interaction with humans

Main article: Human interaction with cats

A cat sleeping on a man's lap

Cats are common pets throughout the world, and their worldwide population as of 2007 exceeded
500 million.[193] Cats have been used for millennia to control rodents, notably around grain
stores and aboard ships, and both uses extend to the present day.[194][195]
As well as being kept as pets, cats are also used in the international fur trade[196] and leather
industries for making coats, hats, blankets, and stuffed toys;[197] and shoes, gloves, and musical
instruments respectively[198] (about 24 cats are needed to make a cat-fur coat).[199] This use has been
outlawed in the United States since 2000 and in the European Union (as well as the United
Kingdom) since 2007.[200]
Cat pelts have been used for superstitious purposes as part of the practice of witchcraft,[201] and are
still made into blankets in Switzerland as traditional medicine thought to cure rheumatism.[202]
A few attempts to build a cat census have been made over the years, both through associations or
national and international organizations (such as that of the Canadian Federation of Humane
Societies[203]) and over the Internet,[204][205] but such a task does not seem simple to achieve. General
estimates for the global population of domestic cats range widely from anywhere between 200
million to 600 million.[206][207][208][209][210] Walter Chandoha made his career photographing cats after his
1949 images of Loco, an especially charming stray taken in, were published around the world. He is
reported to have photographed 90,000 cats during his career and maintained an archive of 225,000
images that he drew from for publications during his lifetime.[211]

Shows
Main article: Cat show
A cat show is a judged event in which the owners of cats compete to win titles in various cat-
registering organizations by entering their cats to be judged after a breed standard.[212] It is often
required that a cat must be healthy and vaccinated in order to participate in a cat show.
[212]
 Both pedigreed and non-purebred companion ("moggy") cats are admissible, although the rules
differ depending on the organization. Competing cats are compared to the applicable breed
standard, and assessed for temperament.[212]

Infection
Main article: Feline zoonosis
Cats can be infected or infested with viruses, bacteria, fungus, protozoans, arthropods or worms that
can transmit diseases to humans.[213] In some cases, the cat exhibits no symptoms of the disease.
[214]
 The same disease can then become evident in a human. The likelihood that a person will become
diseased depends on the age and immune status of the person. Humans who have cats living in
their home or in close association are more likely to become infected. Others might also acquire
infections from cat feces and parasites exiting the cat's body.[213][215] Some of the infections of most
concern include salmonella, cat-scratch disease and toxoplasmosis.[214]

History and mythology

Main articles: Cultural depictions of cats and Cats in ancient Egypt
In ancient Egypt, cats were worshipped, and the goddess Bastet often depicted in cat form,
sometimes taking on the war-like aspect of a lioness. The Greek historian Herodotus reported that
killing a cat was forbidden, and when a household cat died, the entire family mourned and shaved
their eyebrows. Families took their dead cats to the sacred city of Bubastis, where they were
embalmed and buried in sacred repositories. Herodotus expressed astonishment at the domestic
cats in Egypt, because he had only ever seen wildcats.[216]
Ancient Greeks and Romans kept weasels as pets, which were seen as the ideal rodent-killers. The
earliest unmistakable evidence of the Greeks having domestic cats comes from two coins
from Magna Graecia dating to the mid-fifth century BC showing Iokastos and Phalanthos, the
legendary founders of Rhegion and Taras respectively, playing with their pet cats. The usual ancient
Greek word for 'cat' was ailouros, meaning 'thing with the waving tail'. Cats are rarely mentioned
in ancient Greek literature. Aristotle remarked in his History of Animals that "female cats are
naturally lecherous." The Greeks later syncretized their own goddess Artemis with the Egyptian
goddess Bastet, adopting Bastet's associations with cats and ascribing them to Artemis.
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, when the deities flee to Egypt and take animal forms, the
goddess Diana turns into a cat.[217][218]
Cats eventually displaced weasels as the pest control of choice because they were more pleasant to
have around the house and were more enthusiastic hunters of mice. During the Middle Ages, many
of Artemis's associations with cats were grafted onto the Virgin Mary. Cats are often shown in icons
of Annunciation and of the Holy Family and, according to Italian folklore, on the same night that Mary
gave birth to Jesus, a cat in Bethlehem gave birth to a kitten.[219] Domestic cats were spread
throughout much of the rest of the world during the Age of Discovery, as ships' cats were carried
on sailing ships to control shipboard rodents and as good-luck charms.[50]
Several ancient religions believed cats are exalted souls, companions or guides for humans, that are
all-knowing but mute so they cannot influence decisions made by humans. In Japan, the maneki
neko cat is a symbol of good fortune.[220] In Norse mythology, Freyja, the goddess of love, beauty,
and fertility, is depicted as riding a chariot drawn by cats.[221] In Jewish legend, the first cat was living
in the house of the first man Adam as a pet that got rid of mice. The cat was once partnering with the
first dog before the latter broke an oath they had made which resulted in enmity between the
descendants of these two animals. It is also written that neither cats nor foxes are represented in the
water, while every other animal has an incarnation species in the water.[222] Although no species are
sacred in Islam, cats are revered by Muslims. Some Western writers have stated Muhammad had a
favorite cat, Muezza.[223] He is reported to have loved cats so much, "he would do without his cloak
rather than disturb one that was sleeping on it".[224] The story has no origin in early Muslim writers,
and seems to confuse a story of a later Sufi saint, Ahmed ar-Rifa'i, centuries after Muhammad.
[225]
 One of the companions of Muhammad was known as Abu Hurayrah ("father of the kitten"), in
reference to his documented affection to cats.[226]

lamic social reforms

Main article: Early social changes under Islam

According to William Montgomery Watt, religion for Muhammad was not a private and individual
matter but "the total response of his personality to the total situation in which he found himself. He
was responding [not only]... to the religious and intellectual aspects of the situation but also to the
economic, social, and political pressures to which contemporary Mecca was subject."[218] Bernard
Lewis says there are two important political traditions in Islam—Muhammad as a statesman in
Medina, and Muhammad as a rebel in Mecca. In his view, Islam is a great change, akin to a
revolution, when introduced to new societies.[219]
Historians generally agree that Islamic social changes in areas such as social security, family
structure, slavery and the rights of women and children improved on the status quo of Arab society.
[219][220]
 For example, according to Lewis, Islam "from the first denounced aristocratic privilege, rejected
hierarchy, and adopted a formula of the career open to the talents".[which?][219] Muhammad's message
transformed society and moral orders of life in the Arabian Peninsula; society focused on the
changes to perceived identity, world view, and the hierarchy of values.[221][page  needed] Economic reforms
addressed the plight of the poor, which was becoming an issue in pre-Islamic Mecca.[222] The Quran
requires payment of an alms tax (zakat) for the benefit of the poor; as Muhammad's power grew he
demanded that tribes who wished to ally with him implement the zakat in particular.[223][224]

Appearance
A hilya containing a description of Muhammad, by Ottoman calligrapher Hâfiz Osman (1642–1698)

In Muhammad al-Bukhari's book Sahih al-Bukhari, in Chapter 61, Hadith 57 & Hadith 60,[225]
[226]
 Muhammad is depicted by two of his companions thus:
God's Messenger was neither very tall nor short, neither absolutely white nor deep brown. His hair
was neither curly nor lank. God sent him (as a Messenger) when he was forty years old. Afterwards
he resided in Mecca for ten years and in Medina for ten more years. When God took him unto Him,
there was scarcely twenty white hairs in his head and beard.

— Anas
The Prophet was of moderate height having broad shoulders (long) hair reaching his ear-lobes.
Once I saw him in a red cloak and I had never seen anyone more handsome than him.

— Al-Bara
The description given in Muhammad ibn Isa at-Tirmidhi's book Shama'il al-Mustafa, attributed to Ali
ibn Abi Talib and Hind ibn Abi Hala is as follows:[227][228][229]
Muhammad was middle-sized, did not have lank or crisp hair, was not fat, had a white circular face,
wide black eyes, and long eye-lashes. When he walked, he walked as though he went down
a declivity. He had the "seal of prophecy" between his shoulder blades ... He was bulky. His face
shone like the moon. He was taller than middling stature but shorter than conspicuous tallness. He
had thick, curly hair. The plaits of his hair were parted. His hair reached beyond the lobe of his ear.
His complexion was azhar [bright, luminous]. Muhammad had a wide forehead, and fine, long,
arched eyebrows which did not meet. Between his eyebrows there was a vein which distended when
he was angry. The upper part of his nose was hooked; he was thick bearded, had smooth cheeks, a
strong mouth, and his teeth were set apart. He had thin hair on his chest. His neck was like the neck
of an ivory statue, with the purity of silver. Muhammad was proportionate, stout, firm-gripped, even
of belly and chest, broad-chested and broad-shouldered.
The "seal of prophecy" between Muhammad's shoulders is generally described as having been a
type of raised mole the size of a pigeon's egg.[228] Another description of Muhammad was provided
by Umm Ma'bad, a woman he met on his journey to Medina:[230][231]
I saw a man, pure and clean, with a handsome face and a fine figure. He was not marred by a
skinny body, nor was he overly small in the head and neck. He was graceful and elegant, with
intensely black eyes and thick eyelashes. There was a huskiness in his voice, and his neck was
long. His beard was thick, and his eyebrows were finely arched and joined together. When silent, he
was grave and dignified, and when he spoke, glory rose up and overcame him. He was from afar the
most beautiful of men and the most glorious, and close up he was the sweetest and the loveliest. He
was sweet of speech and articulate, but not petty or trifling. His speech was a string of cascading
pearls, measured so that none despaired of its length, and no eye challenged him because of
brevity. In company he is like a branch between two other branches, but he is the most flourishing of
the three in appearance, and the loveliest in power. He has friends surrounding him, who listen to his
words. If he commands, they obey implicitly, with eagerness and haste, without frown or complaint.
Descriptions like these were often reproduced in calligraphic panels (Turkish: hilye), which in the
17th century developed into an art form of their own in the Ottoman Empire.[230]

Household
Further information: Muhammad's wives and Ahl al-Bayt

The tomb of Muhammad is located in the quarters of his third wife, Aisha. (Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, Medina)

Muhammad's life is traditionally defined into two periods: pre-hijra (emigration) in Mecca (from 570 to
622), and post-hijra in Medina (from 622 until 632). Muhammad is said to have had thirteen wives in
total (although two have ambiguous accounts, Rayhana bint Zayd and Maria al-Qibtiyya, as wife or
concubine[232][233]). Eleven of the thirteen marriages occurred after the migration to Medina.
At the age of 25, Muhammad married the wealthy Khadijah bint Khuwaylid who was 40 years old.
[234]
 The marriage lasted for 25 years and was a happy one.[235] Muhammad did not enter into marriage
with another woman during this marriage.[236][237] After Khadijah's death, Khawla bint Hakim suggested
to Muhammad that he should marry Sawda bint Zama, a Muslim widow, or Aisha, daughter of Um
Ruman and Abu Bakr of Mecca. Muhammad is said to have asked for arrangements to marry both.
[165]
 Muhammad's marriages after the death of Khadijah were contracted mostly for political or
humanitarian reasons. The women were either widows of Muslims killed in battle and had been left
without a protector, or belonged to important families or clans with whom it was necessary to honor
and strengthen alliances.[238]
According to traditional sources, Aisha was six or seven years old when betrothed to Muhammad,[165]
[239][240]
 with the marriage not being consummated until she reached the age of nine or ten years old.
[248]
 She was therefore a virgin at marriage.[239] Modern Muslim authors who calculate Aisha's age
based on other sources of information, such as a hadith about the age difference between Aisha and
her sister Asma, estimate that she was over thirteen and perhaps in her late teens at the time of her
marriage.[254]
After migration to Medina, Muhammad, who was then in his fifties, married several more women.
Muhammad performed household chores such as preparing food, sewing clothes, and repairing
shoes. He is also said to have had accustomed his wives to dialogue; he listened to their advice, and
the wives debated and even argued with him.[255][256][257]
Khadijah is said to have had four daughters with Muhammad (Ruqayyah bint Muhammad, Umm
Kulthum bint Muhammad, Zainab bint Muhammad, Fatimah Zahra) and two sons (Abd-Allah ibn
Muhammad and Qasim ibn Muhammad, who both died in childhood). All but one of his daughters,
Fatimah, died before him.[258] Some Shi'a scholars contend that Fatimah was Muhammad's only
daughter.[259] Maria al-Qibtiyya bore him a son named Ibrahim ibn Muhammad, but the child died
when he was two years old.[258]
Nine of Muhammad's wives survived him.[233] Aisha, who became known as Muhammad's favourite
wife in Sunni tradition, survived him by decades and was instrumental in helping assemble the
scattered sayings of Muhammad that form the Hadith literature for the Sunni branch of Islam.[165]
Muhammad's descendants through Fatimah are known as sharifs, syeds or sayyids. These are
honorific titles in Arabic, sharif meaning 'noble' and sayed or sayyid meaning 'lord' or 'sir'. As
Muhammad's only descendants, they are respected by both Sunni and Shi'a, though the Shi'a place
much more emphasis and value on their distinction.[260]
Zayd ibn Haritha was a slave that Muhammad bought, freed, and then adopted as his son. He also
had a wetnurse.[261] According to a BBC summary, "the Prophet Muhammad did not try to abolish
slavery, and bought, sold, captured, and owned slaves himself. But he insisted that slave owners
treat their slaves well and stressed the virtue of freeing slaves. Muhammad treated slaves as human
beings and clearly held some in the highest esteem".[262]

Legacy
Islamic tradition
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Main article: Muhammad in Islam
Following the attestation to the oneness of God, the belief in Muhammad's prophethood is the main
aspect of the Islamic faith. Every Muslim proclaims in Shahadah: "I testify that there is no god but
God, and I testify that Muhammad is a Messenger of God." The Shahadah is the basic creed or
tenet of Islam. Islamic belief is that ideally the Shahadah is the first words a newborn will hear;
children are taught it immediately and it will be recited upon death. Muslims repeat the shahadah in
the call to prayer (adhan) and the prayer itself. Non-Muslims wishing to convert to Islam are required
to recite the creed.[263]
In Islamic belief, Muhammad is regarded as the last prophet sent by God.[264][265] Quran 10:37 states
that "...it (the Quran) is a confirmation of (revelations) that went before it, and a fuller explanation of
the Book—wherein there is no doubt—from The Lord of the Worlds." Similarly, Quran 46:12 states
"...And before this was the book of Moses, as a guide and a mercy. And this Book confirms (it)...",
while Quran 2:136 commands the believers of Islam to "Say: we believe in God and that which is
revealed unto us, and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and
the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and which the prophets received from their
Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered."

The Muslim profession of faith, the Shahadah, illustrates the Muslim conception of the role of Muhammad:
"There is no god except the God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God." in Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, Turkey

Muslim tradition credits Muhammad with several miracles or supernatural events.[266] For example,

many Muslim commentators and some Western scholars have interpreted the Surah Quran 54:1–
2 as referring to Muhammad splitting the Moon in view of the Quraysh when they began persecuting
his followers.[267][268] Western historian of Islam Denis Gril believes the Quran does not overtly describe
Muhammad performing miracles, and the supreme miracle of Muhammad is identified with the
Quran itself.[267]
According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad was attacked by the people of Ta'if and was badly injured.
The tradition also describes an angel appearing to him and offering retribution against the assailants.
It is said that Muhammad rejected the offer and prayed for the guidance of the people of Ta'if.[269]

Calligraphic rendering of "may God honor him and grant him peace", customarily added after Muhammad's
name, encoded as a ligature at Unicode code point U+FDFA.[270] ‫ﷺ‬.
The Sunnah represents actions and sayings of Muhammad (preserved in reports known as Hadith)
and covers a broad array of activities and beliefs ranging from religious rituals, personal hygiene,
and burial of the dead to the mystical questions involving the love between humans and God. The
Sunnah is considered a model of emulation for pious Muslims and has to a great degree influenced
the Muslim culture. The greeting that Muhammad taught Muslims to offer each other, "may peace be
upon you" (Arabic: as-salamu 'alaykum) is used by Muslims throughout the world. Many details of
major Islamic rituals such as daily prayers, the fasting and the annual pilgrimage are only found in
the Sunnah and not the Quran.[271]
Muslims have traditionally expressed love and veneration for Muhammad. Stories of Muhammad's
life, his intercession and of his miracles have permeated popular Muslim thought and poetry. Among
Arabic odes to Muhammad, Qasidat al-Burda ("Poem of the Mantle") by the Egyptian Sufi al-
Busiri (1211–1294) is particularly well-known, and widely held to possess a healing, spiritual power.
[272]
 The Quran refers to Muhammad as "a mercy (rahmat) to the worlds" (Quran Quran 21:107).
[16]
 The association of rain with mercy in Oriental countries has led to imagining Muhammad as a rain
cloud dispensing blessings and stretching over lands, reviving the dead hearts, just as rain revives
the seemingly dead earth (see, for example, the Sindhi poem of Shah ʿAbd al-Latif).[16] Muhammad's
birthday is celebrated as a major feast throughout the Islamic world, excluding Wahhabi-dominated
Saudi Arabia where these public celebrations are discouraged.[273] When Muslims say or write the
name of Muhammad, they usually follow it with the Arabic phrase ṣallā llahu ʿalayhi wa-sallam (may
God honor him and grant him peace) or the English phrase peace be upon him.[274] In casual writing,
the abbreviations SAW (for the Arabic phrase) or PBUH (for the English phrase) are sometimes
used; in printed matter, a small calligraphic rendition is commonly used (‫)ﷺ‬.
Sufism
See also: Sufism

The Sunnah contributed much to the development of Islamic law, particularly from the end of the first
Islamic century.[275] Muslim mystics, known as sufis, who were seeking for the inner meaning of the
Quran and the inner nature of Muhammad, viewed the prophet of Islam not only as a prophet but
also as a perfect human being. All Sufi orders trace their chain of spiritual descent back to
Muhammad.[276]
Depictions
Main article: Depictions of Muhammad

In line with the hadith's prohibition against creating images of sentient living beings, which is
particularly strictly observed with respect to God and Muhammad, Islamic religious art is focused on
the word.[277][278] Muslims generally avoid depictions of Muhammad, and mosques are decorated with
calligraphy and Quranic inscriptions or geometrical designs, not images or sculptures.[277][279] Today,
the interdiction against images of Muhammad—designed to prevent worship of Muhammad, rather
than God—is much more strictly observed in Sunni Islam (85%–90% of Muslims)
and Ahmadiyya Islam (1%) than among Shias (10%–15%).[280] While both Sunnis and Shias have
created images of Muhammad in the past,[281] Islamic depictions of Muhammad are rare.[277] They
have mostly been limited to the private and elite medium of the miniature, and since about 1500
most depictions show Muhammad with his face veiled, or symbolically represent him as a flame.[279][282]
Muhammad's entry into Mecca and the destruction of idols. Muhammad is shown as a flame in this manuscript.
Found in Bazil's Hamla-i Haydari, Jammu and Kashmir, India, 1808.

The earliest extant depictions come from 13th century Anatolian Seljuk and Ilkhanid Persian

miniatures, typically in literary genres describing the life and deeds of Muhammad.[282][283] During the
Ilkhanid period, when Persia's Mongol rulers converted to Islam, competing Sunni and Shi'a groups
used visual imagery, including images of Muhammad, to promote their particular interpretation of
Islam's key events.[284] Influenced by the Buddhist tradition of representational religious art predating
the Mongol elite's conversion, this innovation was unprecedented in the Islamic world, and
accompanied by a "broader shift in Islamic artistic culture away from abstraction toward
representation" in "mosques, on tapestries, silks, ceramics, and in glass and metalwork" besides
books.[285] In the Persian lands, this tradition of realistic depictions lasted through the Timurid
dynasty until the Safavids took power in the early 16th century.[284] The Safavaids, who made Shi'i
Islam the state religion, initiated a departure from the traditional Ilkhanid and Timurid artistic style by
covering Muhammad's face with a veil to obscure his features and at the same time represent his
luminous essence.[286] Concomitantly, some of the unveiled images from earlier periods were
defaced.[284][287][288] Later images were produced in Ottoman Turkey and elsewhere, but mosques were
never decorated with images of Muhammad.[281] Illustrated accounts of the night journey (mi'raj) were
particularly popular from the Ilkhanid period through the Safavid era.[289] During the 19th
century, Iran saw a boom of printed and illustrated mi'raj books, with Muhammad's face veiled,
aimed in particular at illiterates and children in the manner of graphic novels. Reproduced
through lithography, these were essentially "printed manuscripts".[289] Today, millions of historical
reproductions and modern images are available in some Muslim-majority countries, especially
Turkey and Iran, on posters, postcards, and even in coffee-table books, but are unknown in most
other parts of the Islamic world, and when encountered by Muslims from other countries, they can
cause considerable consternation and offense.[281][282]

European appreciation
Muhammad in La vie de Mahomet by M. Prideaux (1699). He holds a sword and a crescent while trampling on
a globe, a cross, and the Ten Commandments.

After the Reformation, Muhammad was often portrayed in a similar way.[16][290] Guillaume Postel was

among the first to present a more positive view of Muhammad when he argued that Muhammad
should be esteemed by Christians as a valid prophet.[16][291] Gottfried Leibniz praised Muhammad
because "he did not deviate from the natural religion".[16] Henri de Boulainvilliers, in his Vie de
Mahomed which was published posthumously in 1730, described Muhammad as a gifted political
leader and a just lawmaker.[16] He presents him as a divinely inspired messenger whom God
employed to confound the bickering Oriental Christians, to liberate the Orient from the despotic rule
of the Romans and Persians, and to spread the knowledge of the unity of God from India to Spain.
[292]
 Voltaire had a somewhat mixed opinion on Muhammad: in his play Le fanatisme, ou Mahomet le
Prophète he vilifies Muhammad as a symbol of fanaticism, and in a published essay in 1748 he calls
him "a sublime and hearty charlatan", but in his historical survey Essai sur les mœurs, he presents
him as legislator and a conqueror and calls him an "enthusiast."[292] Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in
his Social Contract (1762), "brushing aside hostile legends of Muhammad as a trickster and
impostor, presents him as a sage legislator who wisely fused religious and political
powers."[292] Emmanuel Pastoret published in 1787 his Zoroaster, Confucius and Muhammad, in
which he presents the lives of these three "great men", "the greatest legislators of the universe", and
compares their careers as religious reformers and lawgivers. He rejects the common view that
Muhammad is an impostor and argues that the Quran proffers "the most sublime truths of cult and
morals"; it defines the unity of God with an "admirable concision." Pastoret writes that the common
accusations of his immorality are unfounded: on the contrary, his law enjoins sobriety, generosity,
and compassion on his followers: the "legislator of Arabia" was "a great man."[292] Napoleon
Bonaparte admired Muhammad and Islam,[293] and described him as a model lawmaker and a great
man.[294][295] Thomas Carlyle in his book On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History (1841)
describes "Mahomet" as "A silent great soul; he was one of those who cannot but be in earnest".
[296]
 Carlyle's interpretation has been widely cited by Muslim scholars as a demonstration that
Western scholarship validates Muhammad's status as a great man in history.[297]
Ian Almond says that German Romantic writers generally held positive views of Muhammad:
"Goethe’s 'extraordinary' poet-prophet, Herder’s nation builder (...) Schlegel’s admiration for Islam as
an aesthetic product, enviably authentic, radiantly holistic, played such a central role in his view of
Mohammed as an exemplary world-fashioner that he even used it as a scale of judgement for the
classical (the dithyramb, we are told, has to radiate pure beauty if it is to resemble 'a Koran of
poetry')."[298] After quoting Heinrich Heine, who said in a letter to some friend that "I must admit that
you, great prophet of Mecca, are the greatest poet and that your Quran... will not easily escape my
memory", John Tolan goes on to show how Jews in Europe in particular held more nuanced views
about Muhammad and Islam, being an ethnoreligious minority feeling discriminated, they specifically
lauded Al-Andalus, and thus, "writing about Islam was for Jews a way of indulging in a fantasy world,
far from the persecution and pogroms of nineteenth-century Europe, where Jews could live in
harmony with their non-Jewish neighbors."[299]
Recent writers such as William Montgomery Watt and Richard Bell dismiss the idea that Muhammad
deliberately deceived his followers, arguing that Muhammad "was absolutely sincere and acted in
complete good faith"[300] and Muhammad's readiness to endure hardship for his cause, with what
seemed to be no rational basis for hope, shows his sincerity.[301] Watt, however, says that sincerity
does not directly imply correctness: in contemporary terms, Muhammad might have mistaken his
subconscious for divine revelation.[302] Watt and Bernard Lewis argue that viewing Muhammad a