Comte de Boulainvilliers - La Vie de Mahomed - 1731-1731

Henri Comte de Boulainvilliers
The life of Mahomet, with reflections on the Muslim religion, and the customs of Muslims. Second edition. Amsterdam, Pierre Humbert, 1731.
3 parties in one volume in-12.
442 pages + 2 pages (catalogue).
Good used condition with binding imperfections (fissured spine/flat binding), central stains on some pages without impact on readability.
Boulainvilliers sought historical accuracy in his biography.
It offers a positive view both of Mahomet, whom he describes as a man of genius, a great legislator, conqueror, and monarch, and of his religion, which he characterizes as just and tolerant.
He distinguished himself radically from his contemporaries, for whom Mahomet remains and will remain for a long time a symbol of fanaticism rather than an example of tolerance; his work caused scandal and was immediately refuted by Garnier and Voltaire.
Description of Arabia, Arab customs, the cities of Mecca and Medina, history, reflections on the Mahometan religion and customs, genealogy and life of Muhammad, life of the false prophet.
The author (1658-1722), born in Saire, a renowned historian, worked on writing the life of Mahomed from 1718 to 1721. This work ceased upon his death. The posthumous work was published in London in 1730. Boulainvilliers only wrote the first two parts; the third was authored by an anonymous writer. The knowledge and information about the Islamic world contained in the works of Pocock, d'Herbelot, and others formed the basis that allowed Boulainvilliers to present his own vision of Islam and Mahomed. Based on known sources, this work on the customs and history of the Arabs before and after the Prophet's birth helped better understand the circumstances in which he appeared, the difficulties he had to face, and the dispositions that the providence of nature had prepared so that the great change brought about by a single man in the history of the Arab world could be realized.

































































































Reference work